These policies can help to improve the mental health of students
all or nothing educational policies fucked me up so bad in school. classes where being late was counted as an absence, where late assignments were not accepted, where incomplete assignments were counted as late which were not accepted.
like, sometimes I’d go “fuck I can’t make it to class on time” and so just… skip. Or I’d go “can I finish this by the deadline? I don’t think I can. Might as well not do it at all.”
It promoted giving up, and it’s habit I’ve spent most of my adult life breaking. I have spent years re-training myself to understand that something is better than nothing, and that every little bit counts.
From @justmangobrown: “Trying to get chores done with a determined cat . Spoiler alert: his persistence always pays off” #catsofinstagram #twitterweek [source: https://ift.tt/2ryvxxt ]
EVERY YEAR we come to this most sacred of spooky months and people start throwing around prompt lists for high-profile art challenges. It’s supposed to be CREATIVELY MOTIVATING, but for people such as myself that get sweaty at the very thought of picking up a pencil some days, these challenges and the awesome drawings other artists make for them can cause FEELINGS OF INADEQUACY AND/OR DISAPPOINTMENT IN ONESELF FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO CREATE ART AS EASILY OR QUICKLY AS OTHERS.
SO I propose an art challenge where the explicit goal is to BRING A DRAWING TO SOME LEVEL OF COMPLETION WITHOUT EXERTING ANY OF YOUR MENTAL FACILITIES. I’m talking to YOU, person reading this that can no longer draw without being weighed down by anxiety, guilt, or some other crushing, shitty feeling. This is a drawing challenge for YOU. You know that zen mode you get in when you’re doodling while on hold for an hour with a health insurance company or during that class with the teacher that cares only slightly more about what they’re lecturing about than you do? THAT’S IT.That’s the zone you need to get into for this. Maybe you’ve lost the directions to this place due to the unending stress of everyday life BUT WE’RE GONNA FIND OUR WAY BACK THERE BABY.
Is there a prompt list? NO!!!!! The hardest thing you gotta do each day is clear your mind of everything you think you need to draw and what media or style you should draw them in… Only then can you truly pinpoint what you WANT to draw and how you WANT to draw it! Think back to all those times you felt an irresistible urge to draw something, only to blow it off because you were busy and/or you thought it wasn’t a valuable use of your time… Now’s the time to draw all that shit yo!
FUCK COMPOSITION. FUCK COLOR THEORY. FUCK CHARACTER DESIGN, ANATOMY, AND REFERENCES. FUCK EVERYTHING EXCEPT PURE ARTISTIC HEDONISM. THIS MONTH, THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS IS HAVING A GOOD GODDAMN TIME.
