| You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. Then you will be able to DO … Try to do some BAD work – the worst you can think of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell – you are not responsible for the world – you are only responsible for your work – so DO IT. ~ Sol LeWitt |
What good advice – make bad art. I recently heard it said that every “successful” artist has a garage full of bad art. On one hand, making bad art is part of the journey to making good art. On the other hand, sometimes you just have to express yourself and bad art is a way to do that.
- Here are 5 things to learn from the Moomins. The Moomintrolls were created by a Finnish author and that are a part of their cultural fabric. When visiting, my wife and I received mugs with characters that seemed to represent us to the gifters. We use them to enjoy good tea (or coffee).
- I ran across this bit by Louis C.K. some years ago and randomly remember it. It recently came to mind. Even though things could be better, everything is still pretty amazing and no one is happy.
- There are some art supplies, stickers, and other goodies available in the local online marketplace that was coordinated by Local First, BID, and the Chamber of Commerce.
- A few thoughts on the point of making pointless things.
- Quarantine drawings and some thoughts about them. I particularly like the goat, for some reason.
- Artist Keri Smith is posting a daily creative prompt, if you need some inspiration.
- Looking for more instruction than inspiration? Then Artists Network has you covered with these free art tutorials!
In the quarantine drawings article, this quote particularly jumped out at me: I think we can be kinder to ourselves, take it easy, do things for the love of it, don’t flog yourself. It’s easy to see this time to as a chance to catch up, to get ahead, to run circles… to do something. I have long felt that we, as a culture, don’t have enough margin time built into our lives. Take advantage of a forced downtime (at least for some of us) and pursue bad art, make pointless things for the fun of it, maybe to learn a new skill that you wouldn’t otherwise make the time for. In general, appreciate what we do have (the world is pretty amazing, after all!) and take the time to get out in nature and also to do something creative – you need your art!
Cheers!
Matthew & the Art Supply House crew
P.S. – Thanks for reading! If you like this newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If you’d like to receive a weekly newsletter in your email, you can subscribe below.