Make Bad Art: the Course

Are you tired of contorting yourself to meet others' expectations?

Back in June, you may recall, I did two free workshops called Make Bad Art. They were a ton of fun, and I realized almost immediately that they needed to be expanded into a larger course.

That process, thanks to some unforeseen circumstances and also the general tendencies of summer (family vacations, for instance), took a little longer than I’d hoped—but the course version of Make Bad Art is finally here!

If you are tired of contorting yourself to meet others’ expectations and want to remember your own wild, imperfect self and reclaim your curious, adventurous, creative genius inner kid, Make Bad Art is for you. 

It officially starts on November 4 and runs for six weeks, during which time we’ll look at the 9 Ps of my Anti-Perfectionism Formula:

And we’ll actively practice making bad art on each call, too.

It’s so easy to decide you’re not going to give in to perfectionism anymore, but it’s another thing to actually do it, because it’s so ingrained in us.

Case in point: while I was writing this, a friend found a major typo in the document with all the details for the course. Right up top!

I fixed it, of course, and I’m kind of amused that hey! I screwed up right there at the beginning of a doc about an anti-perfectionism course! What could be more, errr… perfect? 🤣

But at the same time, it woke up every voice of the copyeditor/proofreader/English teacher in me, and every perfectionistic boss/teacher I’ve ever had, and I could hear all those shame-y voices telling me I should have triple-checked the file and been more careful.

I suspect those voices will never really go away, but I don’t have to honor them. I don’t have to decide they determine my value or get to tell me whether I’m okay or not.

Those voices are what make it tough to do this work on your own. It really helps to be in a community of others who remind you that you’re not alone, and that they totally understand, because they fight against voices like that, too.

I refuse to apologize to those voices for being human. Because, you know what? The world didn’t end. And it wouldn’t have ended if more people had seen it that way. If anything, anyone who saw that mistake and decided that I wasn’t perfect enough to lead a course on anti-perfectionism because of a typo wouldn’t have been a good fit for this program anyway (irony much?).

But mostly… I’m done apologizing for being a flawed human being. We’re all flawed human beings. And I think it’s okay to own that.

When we own our flaws and even embrace them, it’s so much easier to relax into our own skin, and to create from our own truth—because we’re not so busy trying to pretend to be someone we’re not anymore.

We get to open up, have fun, and play. And just like when we were kids, the best things tend to come from play.

And when we do it in a group, we go from being a lone wolf (and possibly questioning our sanity in the face of a culture that tells us to be more paranoid, more cautious, more impossibly perfect) to being part of a community that delights in bucking that system together.

If you’d like to start owning your imperfections, having more compassion for yourself and others, and remembering how to create like you did when you were a kid, check out Make Bad Art.

I hope you’ll consider joining us! If you have questions, let me know in a comment or set up a time to talk to me.

And if you know someone who would benefit from making bad art with us, please forward this email to them. Thanks!

PS: We’ll have the week off for the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US, but I’ll have some extra tips and tricks to help you navigate what’s often one of the most stressful family gatherings in the spirit of joyful imperfection (and you can use them in any similar situation, from family to work and beyond).