Permission to make crappy art.

Permission to make crappy art.

This is an old blog post that I decided to post again because it is important and it applies not only to art but to many, if not all, areas of our lives.

Sometimes when I make art, I'm not feeling it. The muse is out to lunch or something. My hands are shaky, and nothing flows. The picture just doesn't have IT. It's frustrating. It sucks. Like this picture above. It just doesn't do it for me. But it's okay.

When my kids were younger they would say, "Mom, I wanna draw a picture". "Okay", I said, "go for it". And they drew a picture. One picture. And it didn't turn out perfect. And they immediately gave up all their artistic aspirations.(Luckily they reclaimed them again later on). "How come you make such cool pictures?" they asked. What they didn't realize is, that I don't always make cool pictures. I make many, many uncool pictures and only some of them turn out okay. Sometimes we have to allow ourselves to make ten, twenty, a hundred crappy pictures before we make one we like.

I think of the analogy of the well. When we first start to pump the water, it comes out all rusty and dirty, but if we just keep pumping, eventually it'll come clear.

So don't give up just because it doesn't come out right the first time around, keep "pumping", keep working and the muse will know that you're serious and committed and she'll come back from lunch and help you.