Everything That Counts As Creativity

A non-exhaustive list of my favorite things to get immersed in, from writing to organizing my sports bras

Last week, I led a workshop at my friend’s store in Boston (technically Sommerville), and it was the first ever Bad Art Every Day Workshop. It was small—just 9 of us sat around a table, all my most-used and most-forgotten art supplies jumbled in the middle and with a big piece of good paper for each of us. The goal of the two hours was to play, open up, and fill the paper.

I was nervous as I arrived, possibly because I was running late, it was raining, and i had 4-5 odd shaped objects. By the end, I was delighted and grateful for how the group opened up, and honestly impressed by each of their posters. I have a friend who tells me my account name is a misnomer, as he thinks most of art I do doesn’t really end up being very bad at all, and I told them I had the same feeling that night.

The workshop was art-prompt based, and my singular instruction was to use materials that evoke the least sense of mastery from each person. This was to make it at the start okay to be a beginner, and even to aim to make art that is not going to be good, so you can flow a bit more with the creative process and real time responses your body and mind give you. I’ll talk about all of the prompts at another time, and maybe even do a virtual version of this workshop sometime in December, but today I want to tell you about the one inspired by one of my favorite quotes that I cite often here.