Go do some art badly
Why you need things that aren't YOUR thing
This is a(n) (obviously bad) sketch of my cat Lewis.
A while back, I worked through Walking in This World, Julia Cameron’s follow-up to The Artist’s Way. One of the exercises said to buy a sketchbook and start sketching in it, not to get “better” at drawing but as a way to get out of your own head as an artist and go back to playing around with something like a little kid. This sketch let me mess around with a new art form with absolutely zero stakes for how it turned out.
This is me, taking off my skates after a practice session.
Whenever I tell people I figure skate as a hobby, they want to know if I compete or do exhibitions or otherwise perform and have some kind of tangible benchmark they can understand. In other words, they’re asking if I’m “good” at it. So far, the answer to the asked question and the implied question is no. Mostly I just practice and practice and practice. I do take lessons with a coach, and thanks to her, I’ve improved a lot in the last year, and there’s a first adult Moves in the Field test I would like to take in the near future, but I don’t have a set timeline for when I want to pass it. I skate for the sake of skating, for the little-kid feeling of the wind on my face and the opportunity to try something brand-new and see what happens.
This is a simple, lovely arrangement of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” that I’ve been stumbling through over and over since September because I want to be able to play Christmas songs by the time the season is fully here. I do have a goal, but because playing the piano isn’t my “thing” the way writing is, it still feels like I can be a kid and mess around with something and not have high stakes for my success (or lack thereof) in it.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of having creative endeavors in your life that have nothing to do with your main pursuit, and I wanted to share these examples with you. Whatever kind of artist you are, I believe that you need to explore something creative outside your area of expertise to keep that little-kid energy alive.
I used to assume that the more time I had to write, the better my writing would be and the more I would produce. If I could somehow devote 100 percent of my life to writing, then I’d be an amazing and prolific writer, right? Nope. I’ve been lucky enough to have the flexibility to experiment with my writing schedule and habits, and I’ve realized that there’s a maximum amount of time and focus that I can put into writing on any given day. I don’t have creative energy past that. I need the mental break of messing around with a different kind of creativity, and I need a full home and community life.
The time I spend skating at the rink where everyone knows me, or sitting down at the piano to play Christmas songs, or going for a walk around our neighborhood, or even cleaning baseboards while listening to the 1989 (Taylor’s Version) vault tracks over and over is just as valuable as my writing time because those moments give my writer brain a break and fuel my creative energy to go back to my manuscript the next day.
You don’t need permission from me to go experiment with some new creative form that will let you be a little kid fingerpainting and making a mess, but if you need a nudge to do so, here it is. Go create something and let yourself be bad at it. Your artist will thank you.
December Recommendations
Songs for the Season by Ingrid Michaelson — When people think Christmas music is saccharine and only offers a rose-colored view of the world, I know they’ve been listening to the watered-down stuff that blares over store speakers instead of the real thing. Christmas music is fully aware that life is sad and hard and the world is broken. The desperate hopes and greatest fears of all of humanity’s existence were met in Bethlehem, after all. And yes, the hymns lay it out more openly, but “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” are sad songs too.
Songs for the Season explores the fun and whimsy of Christmas as well, with plenty of standards like “White Christmas” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” but it’s Michaelson’s original, “Happy, Happy Christmas,” that will stay with you — and by “stay with you,” I mean that it will rip your heart out of your chest and make you need to go hug a loved one, ASAP. Exactly what Christmas music is intended to do.
Just Like Magic by Sarah Hogle — I adored this screwball comedy when I read it over Christmas vacation last year, and I couldn’t wait for the year to turn again for me to recommend it in time for other readers to add it to their December rom com reading lists (if you’re not aware, those reading lists are definitely a thing). Just Like Magic is sweet and giggle-inducing and — sometimes — absurd, yet wistful in the way the best Christmas songs are.
Dear Santa — It’s not a secret that I love cheesy Christmas movies. One December when I was very sad, I watched about a million Hallmark-y, made-for-TV Christmas rom coms and found so much comfort in their formulaic structure, and I still love them. I love the wonderful character actors sprinkled throughout the supporting cast. I love the popularity of the “we need to save Christmas by creating a HUGE celebration even though production only gave us a budget for like six folding chairs and a wreath!!” storyline. I love the relentless hope. Anyway, I’m here to remind you that Dear Santa is still a classic. What other film can teach you that you’re never over-dressed as long as you look (and feel) fabulous AND that Christmas cheer always saves the day?