pixiewithpens

there's never been a better time than now to embrace imperfect human art, when the internet is full of eerily smooth AI images. it's important to insist on our humanity in an inhuman society, where we are told computers can make "art" for us. as if the end image was the whole point of creating. no!

we make art because we are alive and human and deserve to enjoy our time on this round rock called earth.

humans have made art for almost 70.000 years. for context, we have only been divided into classes of rich and poor for about 10.000. capitalism is only a couple hundred years old.

art is one of the most deeply human things we can do. it's way older than oppression, and the concept of good or failing grades, and the capitalist grindset.

but in this society, we're told that we can't make art simply because we're human. it has to make money, or win prizes, and be ~productive. so we start feeling like we have to "get it right". instead of an expression of our humanity and aliveness, it becomes something to get a good grade in.

so we end up with situations like

• you stopped drawing in middle school when you got your first depression, and now it feels too late to start again because you'll never be a child prodigy. (this was me up until i was 27!)
• you don't have time to draw "properly", so you don't do it at all. (something i have also done.)
• you have fancy supplies that remain unopened because "you're not good enough yet". (also an example from my own journey.)
• you told yourself you'd draw every day, but then you missed one day, so it took weeks, months, or years before you drew again. maybe you still haven't. (totally okay!)

perfectionism is really just fear of failure. somewhere, at some point, we learned that failure was unsafe. and of course we do anything we can to avoid something that feels unsafe! that makes total sense. it's our survival instinct and not a personal flaw.

the other thing about being human is that we are imperfect. no escaping that. we can reclaim a sense of safety in our imperfection by practicing it, and letting it be okay.

that's what this club is for.