Ugly Art
Dear Artist Friends...
Today my studio is full of half-worked canvases. I can barely turn around. It is at once exciting and intimidating. A few of the pieces are more developed and I can see where they are going. A few are commissions and have a general plan.
But the rest are raw and ugly. There’s no guarantee anything good will come of them.
But I’ve been doing this long enough now to know that these are the pieces that will push me. These pieces will end up showing me where my art is headed next.
There are so many artists making beautiful work, and we can see it all on social media at any time of day. It is easy to get discouraged and think that there is no room for us or our art.
We ask ourselves how we will stand out from the rest? How do we make art that is truly our own?
The answer that I have found is to let yourself make ugly art. To make it raw and tactile. Close your eyes. Surprise yourself. Experiment. Wonder at how those marks and colors could have possibly come from your brush.
Your art will improve. Your art will become more like you. Your art will become less like anyone else’s. And space will open up for your art in this world.
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