The Willingness to Make Bad Art
Feeling stuck? Make bad art. Your inner child will love you for it.
If you’re a writer, a painter, a poet. . . If you’re a human being . . . sometimes you need to be willing to make art that is not high quality. To let your inner child know you’re paying attention.
Most of us adults feel that playing around with paints, pens and pastels should produce something lovely if not magnificent. So, we make genuine effort. We color inside the lines. We organize our thoughts and handwork into visual impressions that somehow make sense or at the very least are not embarrassingly juvenile.
Listen to the Inner Child
Our inner children come in many different ages. I have a ten year old that pops up, as well as a rebellious inner teen, and a sweet five year old. Recently, however, the inner child has been showing up as her 2, 3, 4 year old self. This is an age that, while not necessarily preverbal, is pre-logical and much less mental; more embodied and intuitive.
How do you know your inner child is trying to get your attention? First, acknowledge that she/he is present by admitting that you’re cranky, sad, depressed, upset. Or, simply Hungry Angry Lonely or Tired (H.A.L.T.). It is vitally important that we give our inner children airplay, lest the tantrum comes out toward others in our lives, or our selves. Or, we spend days or weeks in the doldrums without knowing exactly why we’re feeling crappy.
Turn toward the little one. Tell her that you’ll spend the day with her, or entire the afternoon, and commit to listening. Play music that she likes. Stay away from the phone for a few hours at the very least. Pet the kitty or puppy. Nap with a cozy blanket. Bake some yummy cookies. Try to be in unstructured time - little ones aren’t so keen on adult calendaring and planning. Give the little one what she most needs.1
What is the reward for all of this? Freed up energy. More flow. Trust amongst the parts of self that are teeming with creative essence but haven’t yet been able to express themselves - good, bad, and everything in between.
Even though it’s awkward, pull out some crayons and colored pencils and let the little one make art. Bad art, in the eye of the inner critic. But art is whatever you make it, and whatever you say it is.
“I never decide if an idea is good or bad until I try it. So much of what gets in the way of things being good is thinking that we know. And the more that we can remove any baggage we're carrying with us, and just be in the moment, use our ears, and pay attention to what's happening, and just listen to the inner voice that directs us, the better.”
~ Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin, legendary music producer, has a new book out, The Creative Act: A Way of Being. He’s got several podcast appearances worth listening to if you check your streaming service. I enjoyed this one with Malcolm Gladwell interviewing Rubin:
I also recently heard the amazingly talented comic Margaret Cho on blues rock musician Andy Frasco’s World Saving Podcast. To paraphrase, Cho calls something she creates art when it feels good to her. If she likes it, it’s art.
I happen to like my inner child’s nail polish drawing. Therefore, ‘tis art.
What do you do to let your little one express him/herself?
How do you allow yourself to get messy and free the heart?
Do you remember an album that you used to love as a small child? Here’s one vinyl record I played over and over, pretending I was a ballerina, or hiding from a dragon, or a faerie in a forest. Probably time to sign up for that adult ballet class…
Check out the book Recovery of Your Inner Child (1991) for a great primer on working with your little one. I benefited greatly from this book back in the day, especially learning to draw and write to myself, from my inner child, with my non-dominant hand.
I've been feeling the impulse to paint recently, but avoided it because of exactly this pressure to produce something acceptable. Thank you for the impulse to just go for it, Erin!
Omg I hate making bad art. Especially since I m an artist and if it’s bad it’s bad for whoever I’m
making it for. But I get it because it does feed the flow when my art is just me playing.
Mind you here’s a fun story of me at five drawing and my mum busy in the kitchen making jam or some such crazy endeavor with boiling and canning. Anyway let’s just say she was distracted and I’m like do you like this? Do you like this one and she is yes dearing me. And I’m getting more annoyed at the lackluster critique skills and inauthentic praise until
I just do this mad big huge angry scribble and when even that gets an oh that’s nice dear I look at her and scream your lying. And stomp upstairs. I access that five year old quite a lot for my art.
I’ll try and check in on the others. There’s a couple of real dream boats out there and the year of the rabbit feels like it would be a good time to do some of what they want.