The Carrot and The Stick
inspiration versus condemnation
Lettie Jane’s Intuitive Drawing is a weekly newsletter about making art. This year I am trying to publish 52 newsletters that are each an art lesson of sorts. They are an invitation to draw, if you feel inclined, but also a description of why I do. I encourage you to take what you need and leave the rest.
Greetings friends,
I sat down to write this newsletter and got lost on Pinterest. There is so much amazing art in the world, it is inspiring and daunting. How can I create something valuable in the midst of so much amazing artwork? (I linked my Pinterest profile if you want an excuse to go get lost in the images right now too).
I had it in mind to write about the carrot and the stick this week. At the end of every class I teach, I like to do a little reflection. First and foremost, I have folks tell me one thing they like about their work. The first time they do it, it’s hard. I like to bring up adrienne maree brown’s book Pleasure Activism. She had to start very small when she began learning to love her own body: first, she practiced loving her pinky fingernail. I invite folks to find the pinky fingernail in their artwork, what do they like about it and why?
This is the carrot, it’s an incentive to make more work because you are excited about what you make. It’s hard to say things we like about our art work, or our bodies. I am often worried that others won’t feel the same way and they’ll laugh at me—in my audacity—or they will think I am conceited for saying I like my own work.
The alternative to the carrot is the stick. The stick seems to be everyone’s default setting around making artwork. The stick protects you from being laughed at, because you are laughing at yourself, rejecting yourself internally before anyone else even has a chance to say anything.
The stick might sound like: It doesn’t look how I thought it would. It’s not original. It doesn’t look like everyone else’s. I’m bad at this.
The stick doesn’t make me want to go to the studio. It doesn’t inspire me to get lost in the process or find solutions to the parts of my artwork I’m not satisfied with. It makes me want to quit.
The carrot helps keep me going, it helps me to be inspired. The Pinterest board momentarily felt like a stick (you will never make anything that good!) but is now settling into the back of my brain as a carrot: how can I incorporate what I like from those images into my own work?
There is nuance here. I’ve done thousands of hours of drawing, and have a lot of drawings I’ve made that I like. When someone tells me something could be improved, or when I look at something myself and think it could be better, I might think I’ll stop making art, but I don’t.
If you are just starting out, or haven’t made a drawing in 10 years, you do not need to hear about how much better it could be. You need to find that pinky fingernail and make it bigger. You need to identify one part of one page in your sketchbook that you like and make it again. Show your work to your most trusted friend and ask them what they like about it. Let them gas you up. The end result will not be everyone laughing at you, the end result will be you starting to make more artwork that you like.
The stick is our culture’s dominant mode because feeling bad about yourself makes you want to buy more things or numb out. Whenever I feel the voice of the stick too loudly, I wonder who it is serving.
Your homework this week is to give yourself a carrot. What are you doing well? How can you shine your attention and orientation on that, instead of what you could do better?
Until next week,
Much love, Lettie JaneAnd Then Some Tidbits
I loved the book The Family Outing by Jessi Hempel. It’s a memoir from the oldest child in a family where everyone (except the mom) came out as gay. There is heartbreak and redemption. It’s intimate in the way that now I think Jessi and I are friends and it touched me deeply, it felt relatable to my own teen years and family story. I highly recommend it.
Check out all the class offerings at Ulna Studio! We’ve got one-off classes like Flower Arranging and my longer format classes like Deeper Drawing and Intuitive Drawing.
Bun Updates
The bundrama continues!!!!
The naughtiest rabbit on Holland Street had to be taken to the vet this week and get stitches because of a nose and mouth cut. It happened while we were out and the bunnies had a gate in between them, but we were letting them sniff each other again. I think he cut his face on the gate, rather than was wounded from the other rabbits. The vet said when rabbits seriously injure each other it makes it even more difficult for them to bond.
We are forcing 5 tubes of medication down Trouble’s mouth daily, so it’s no picnic over here. We are now leaning into keeping him in the Bungeon indefinitely and potentially ADOPTING ANOTHER RABBIT. We’ll definitely wait till his medication torture is over. Rabbit hoarders we are.
In other news Nicky told me this week that Jiji has a beautiful body like a potato and now we talk about it all the time. A beautiful body like a potato! Say it again, may we all celebrate our beautiful bodies, especially when they are shaped like a potato.
I write about Trouble here a lot because he is our problem child, but Jiji is hands down our favorite bunny. We don’t even play around with they are all our favorites, because it isn’t true. Jiji is our favorite, she’s the queen, the best, the most delicate, and has the most dignity. AND she has a beautiful body, just like a potato.
I always feel uplifted by your posts. Thank you for bringing thoughtful joy to your readers.