Thursday 18 March 2021

There Are *No* Art Police...

If you draw, write or create anything at all, you'll probably identify with this feeling...

The time when you wake up and feel (for whatever mysterious reason) that you're a failure, and/or will never produce anything good at all/ever again.

That feeling has been creeping up on me for ages. And this week, it was time to Deal. With. It.

What I didn't realise though, was by 'fessing up to the situation  in a social media group, I'd get quite such an outpouring of support (thanks everyone), mostly from other people, saying either that they'd been to that place often, or were there right now.

Which led me to feel that I really had to do something about this now, not just for myself, but in order not to leave a loop open that was clearly very emotive for a *lot* of people.

The solution I came to was obvious and fun for me, and though it's had a lovely reception in that group, I have no idea yet whether it would ever work for anyone else.

Basically, that solution was to personify an imaginary inner critic, have them throw all my worst fears at me in a drawing and then, simply, erase them.

Which is the story behind this cartoon/four-panel comic...

A comic in which a woman erases and is freed from an imaginary "art policeman"

The *really* interesting thing was that the act of erasing this heartfelt felt but fully imaginary "art policeman" felt incredibly cathartic. In other words, I really do feel free from a ton of inner criticism.

Hope helps for you or someone you know, and/or has given you some fun.

More soon.




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