Bad Art Is Good For You

It’s been said that bad times make for good art. And there’s certainly a lot of great art happening in 2024. There are bands I can’t wait to see, movies that delight in pushing the boundaries of storytelling, and a whole raft of brilliant writing.

Engaging with great art can - of course - be hugely inspiring. You feel a lift in your spirits as you leave the cinema, take the needle off the record or close the final chapter.

But if it’s in the medium in which you seek to express yourself it can also be a little deflating. Exposure to too much good art in your own genre can lead to a bad case of FMICNDR …

Fuck Me, I Could Never Do That.

So, if your creative demons happen to be circling right now, here’s a suggestion – one I first heard from the writer Alan Moore – how about giving up on the good stuff and exploring the bad instead? - You’ll probably feel a whole lot better about your own endeavours, right off the bat.

It’ll make the idea of getting published, shown in a gallery, or recording a song seem way less fanciful – ‘Jesus, if they can do it, then so can I’.

Above all, if you take some time to work out why you think the work's so bad, and, crucially, how the flaws could be fixed, then you’ll learn a lot too. And your own work will become better.

Now, I’m aware that whether art is good or bad is entirely in the eye of the beholder (my wife claims to like this cat dog painting). And there’s also that weird paradox where something is so bad it’s good. So where to start is up to you.

Here's to all art in 2024, the good and the bad.