The Freedom to Make "Bad" Art

I've been struggling to write a post (or really anything new). 

At first I'd planned to write a summary at the recent SCBWI-MI the conference or my experiences there or my key takeaways and a big thanks to all the volunteers and faculty who made it happen (and to be clear: a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who made it possible! The conference was fantastic!).

I would still like to collect and post your photos, thoughts, key takeaways, etc. from the conference, and hope you will submit them to me, but today I'd like to focus on one key takeaway for me:

The freedom to play and make bad art.

I went to one of John Hendrix's sessions at the conference (even though I'm not an illustrator), and as everyone was laughing, attempting to draw with their non-dominant hand for one exercise, we were reminded that this is all supposed to be fun. Not only that, but our work will be better if we're having fun making it or if we give ourselves permission to experiment with something we don't necessarily expect to be good.

This theme continued for me this week at the White Lake Township Library, there was a "bad art night" where people could go and make art without any expectations about its quality. I had a lot of fun playing with colors (and glitter paint!). 

The result of bad art night

This most recent dozen years or so of wanting to be a writer (after a period of a few years of not writing) was inspired by working through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way with my brother, sister-in-law, and some of their friends. I think I'm going to start working through it again. This book also emphasized the importance of play for creativity. 

So, even though I'm sure you've heard it before, in case it's helpful to you to be reminded of it today: Have fun! Play! 

Next week's the Fourth of July, so I think we'll take the week off. So relax and have fun and see how it affects your creativity. 

(And also: if you have an idea for a blog post or would like to write something about any part of your writing and/or illustrating journey, conferences or workshops you attended, etc.), please email me!)