Hello, I’m Kirsteen Lyons-Benson. I’m an artist and I want to explain my Unquit Art project.
So, I’ve been creating art all my life and often I speak to people and I tell them I’m an artist and they say, “Oh! I would love to do that, but I’m no good.” Or, “Oh! I used to do that and I used to really enjoy it in school but I have no time.” And clearly they have happinesses from their art that they have abandoned.
So, I had this idea when I was drawing every day for two years, a couple of years ago. And people – I was sharing them on social media, and people kept messaging me,
“Your drawings brought me so much happiness”,
“I went back to writing poetry because of your discipline”,
and “I set your drawings to come up top in my Facebook feed and it’s improved my
happiness”,
or “I’m drawing again”,
During the second year I encouraged other artists to join me. People even messaged me that it had changed the direction of their life. And I wanted to share that effect.
While I am creating a book, a sketchbook for people to work in, and to help them, and it will be for sale, the Unquit Art idea is not really a fully commercial project. I want it to be a movement. I want it to be a people’s movement for people’s happiness. It’s not actually a movement to make you into a professional artist. But the first step towards being a professional artist would be getting back to doing it at all. Or – so it’s about your happiness but who knows where that will lead.
I want people to share their work. They can use the hashtag #unquitart or they can’t, or they can just share it with their friends secretly.
But the movement is not about being a critic. It’s my opinion that even constructive criticism is very limitedly helpful, because the thing that makes people improve is practice! And if they get too many things corrected, they give up and stop practising. And then they never get good.
So the first thing is to do 10,000 hours or 3,000 hours or 100 hours or at least 10 hours. Then start correcting things! Getting in there with, “Oh, this is no good, that’s no good,” right at the beginning – it just stops people. You learn by doing, best of all, with art. Also, art is personal, so your opinion of how to improve it can be not valid or valid.
I’m going to write a book. It’s going to be, not a drawing course. There are lots of good drawing courses out there – I’m willing to recommend them to anyone who wants – they say, “Do this project,” “This is how you do colour,” “This is how you do this,” “This is how you do shade.” This is not what this is, because to me, all my life people have told me, “Oh, you know, my art teacher told me I was no good, and I quit.” Later they shorten that to, “I’m no good. And I quit.”
So this is a drawing course – this is not a drawing course, this is a course, a book directed to help you with the monsters in your head that tell you, “Quit art! Quit art! This person said you were no good. Quit!”
It’s a course to help you unquit! It’s going to be full of quotes and ideas that say things like, “Treat every drawing like you’re putting out a fire. There’s no time to think, oh, am I a good fireman? Am I in the right zone today for firemaning? It’s like, get in there and put out the fire! You’re a fireman!”
When the drawing’s finished, you can think whatever you like. But while you’re doing it – Poozchk!
All artwork! Any artwork! If people want to unquit their poetry, or unquit guitar, or anything that ever made them happy that was creative, that they abandoned because they had no time, money or they were discouraged. Just for a few minutes a day, I would love to hear about it, I would love it, it’s so worthwhile to me.
My own drawing project for two years brought me so much personal happiness and discipline. I found out that I can draw through anything! And it would always make me feel better. It never made me feel worse. I drew through some of the worst days of my life. And some of the best ones. Both were improved by it. I could work with sunstroke, I could work on a train, I could work when the kids were jostling me, when they were ill, when I was ill. I could work when I was busy, I could work when I was inspired. I could work when I was totally not inspired and become inspired! And each time would say to myself, “I can’t possibly draw today, because blurgh!”
I’d start drawing and get interested, get engaged, become enthusiastic! At the end of it I’d be thinking, “What on earth made me think I was too tired, too busy, too whatever, to create?” The create was always possible! And always made me feel better!
So, all my life I have done so many different things: I have started and run a craft fair, I have had a face-painting business, I have a degree in textile design, I have designed a lot of fabrics, I have been with umpteen different arts festivals, projects, cafes where people met up with other artists.
And they have followed two purposes that I’ve had since I was a little girl. The first one was to be a successful artist. And the second one was to map the way for others. Now, I don’t necessarily mean that I’m going to be a rich artist. I simply mean that I’m going to be successful at creating art. And I am. I can create it. And I don’t worry about who sees it. And I have a personal opinion of my art which tends to stand up to criticism. When other people say they don’t like it, I don’t necessarily agree with them. And when other people say they do like it, I still don’t necessarily agree with them. I have my own opinion, if it’s good or if it’s bad; sometimes I do think it’s bad and I can see where I need to correct it. And I maintain that despite what other people throw at me, because it’s my art.
And I really think that I want to export this to others, that they feel it’s their art, and they get happy from it – they have some “own time” in which they make art, they have a purpose for art that they follow and is part of their living and doing and being and happiness, that doesn’t get stopped because some tool on Facebook doesn’t like it. Or somebody once said at art college that their artwork looked like “a load of old grass stains” (which is a direct quote of something that was said to me at college.)
Interestingly, if you are waiting for people to be horrible to you on the internet about your art, in like 20+ years of sharing artwork, I have had one horrible email! And it was almost the first thing I ever shared, I got a horrible email. I put this painting on eBay and someone wrote something nasty to me, and eBay immediately deleted his account!
So, and since then I’ve only ever had positive criticism. I’ve had some designs sent back, but with very reasonable reasons about why it’s “not quite for our market.” Actually being cut down – once, outside of university – university lecturers think it’s their job to cut down the students and make there fewer artists to compete with them when they leave. But otherwise – not all! I had some amazing lecturers.
But outside of university, I’ve had one person be horrible to me, sharing my art. In my life, all the craft fairs, all the exhibitions, all the, you know, internet sharing – only one person.
So, this is a movement not about being a good critic. This is a movement not even about being good at constructive criticism. This is a movement about getting in the practice, getting in the happiness that comes from practicing something you do well. And so, it’s “share and nurture.” Everybody who uses the hashtag, the comments should be nurturing. I will simply remove, I won’t even rebutt, I will simply remove non-nurturing comments from anybody’s anything.
And even if something is frankly, technically not very good, the point is, we want them to continue until they are technically good! Of course they’re not going to be good if they’ve not done 10,000 hours. Who’s good at anything, who hasn’t done 10,000 hours? You know you’re not even a good driver until you’ve been driving around 6 years or something. (Unless you persist in being a bad driver and not learning your skill.)
So, I also recommend that people do find good drawing courses, but there are lots out there. The point is, the practice, the doing. You learn by doing even more, than you learn by learning those technical skills.
And, gosh I’m rattling on. I’m going to do this in one take and not edit it because I’m literally doing it in my car in the park to get 2 minutes away from excited children, to talk to my phone!
Yes! That’s my complete list! That’s what I wanted to tell you about Unquit Art. The website is unquit.art. So it’s www.unquit.art where I’m sharing my art, and my art tips to keep you creating. The hashtag is #unquitart.
I hope that it even brings you a little happiness. You don’t have to draw every day. You don’t have to buy my book. (Which doesn’t exist yet!)
I will publish it one way or another, with a partner or by myself. However, if you want to ask me for help and you don’t want to buy my book, I just want to see people create!
I want to see people create and generate a movement which brings happiness and create to other, so that I can say, you know, at the end of my days, I was “rich” because I genuinely managed to help somebody!
And thank you for that! Thank you for listening! Goodbye!
So, I’ve been creating art all my life and often I speak to people and I tell them I’m an artist and they say, “Oh! I would love to do that, but I’m no good.” Or, “Oh! I used to do that and I used to really enjoy it in school but I have no time.” And clearly they have happinesses from their art that they have abandoned.
So, I had this idea when I was drawing every day for two years, a couple of years ago. And people – I was sharing them on social media, and people kept messaging me,
“Your drawings brought me so much happiness”,
“I went back to writing poetry because of your discipline”,
and “I set your drawings to come up top in my Facebook feed and it’s improved my
happiness”,
or “I’m drawing again”,
During the second year I encouraged other artists to join me. People even messaged me that it had changed the direction of their life. And I wanted to share that effect.
While I am creating a book, a sketchbook for people to work in, and to help them, and it will be for sale, the Unquit Art idea is not really a fully commercial project. I want it to be a movement. I want it to be a people’s movement for people’s happiness. It’s not actually a movement to make you into a professional artist. But the first step towards being a professional artist would be getting back to doing it at all. Or – so it’s about your happiness but who knows where that will lead.
I want people to share their work. They can use the hashtag #unquitart or they can’t, or they can just share it with their friends secretly.
But the movement is not about being a critic. It’s my opinion that even constructive criticism is very limitedly helpful, because the thing that makes people improve is practice! And if they get too many things corrected, they give up and stop practising. And then they never get good.
So the first thing is to do 10,000 hours or 3,000 hours or 100 hours or at least 10 hours. Then start correcting things! Getting in there with, “Oh, this is no good, that’s no good,” right at the beginning – it just stops people. You learn by doing, best of all, with art. Also, art is personal, so your opinion of how to improve it can be not valid or valid.
I’m going to write a book. It’s going to be, not a drawing course. There are lots of good drawing courses out there – I’m willing to recommend them to anyone who wants – they say, “Do this project,” “This is how you do colour,” “This is how you do this,” “This is how you do shade.” This is not what this is, because to me, all my life people have told me, “Oh, you know, my art teacher told me I was no good, and I quit.” Later they shorten that to, “I’m no good. And I quit.”
So this is a drawing course – this is not a drawing course, this is a course, a book directed to help you with the monsters in your head that tell you, “Quit art! Quit art! This person said you were no good. Quit!”
It’s a course to help you unquit! It’s going to be full of quotes and ideas that say things like, “Treat every drawing like you’re putting out a fire. There’s no time to think, oh, am I a good fireman? Am I in the right zone today for firemaning? It’s like, get in there and put out the fire! You’re a fireman!”
When the drawing’s finished, you can think whatever you like. But while you’re doing it – Poozchk!
All artwork! Any artwork! If people want to unquit their poetry, or unquit guitar, or anything that ever made them happy that was creative, that they abandoned because they had no time, money or they were discouraged. Just for a few minutes a day, I would love to hear about it, I would love it, it’s so worthwhile to me.
My own drawing project for two years brought me so much personal happiness and discipline. I found out that I can draw through anything! And it would always make me feel better. It never made me feel worse. I drew through some of the worst days of my life. And some of the best ones. Both were improved by it. I could work with sunstroke, I could work on a train, I could work when the kids were jostling me, when they were ill, when I was ill. I could work when I was busy, I could work when I was inspired. I could work when I was totally not inspired and become inspired! And each time would say to myself, “I can’t possibly draw today, because blurgh!”
I’d start drawing and get interested, get engaged, become enthusiastic! At the end of it I’d be thinking, “What on earth made me think I was too tired, too busy, too whatever, to create?” The create was always possible! And always made me feel better!
So, all my life I have done so many different things: I have started and run a craft fair, I have had a face-painting business, I have a degree in textile design, I have designed a lot of fabrics, I have been with umpteen different arts festivals, projects, cafes where people met up with other artists.
And they have followed two purposes that I’ve had since I was a little girl. The first one was to be a successful artist. And the second one was to map the way for others. Now, I don’t necessarily mean that I’m going to be a rich artist. I simply mean that I’m going to be successful at creating art. And I am. I can create it. And I don’t worry about who sees it. And I have a personal opinion of my art which tends to stand up to criticism. When other people say they don’t like it, I don’t necessarily agree with them. And when other people say they do like it, I still don’t necessarily agree with them. I have my own opinion, if it’s good or if it’s bad; sometimes I do think it’s bad and I can see where I need to correct it. And I maintain that despite what other people throw at me, because it’s my art.
And I really think that I want to export this to others, that they feel it’s their art, and they get happy from it – they have some “own time” in which they make art, they have a purpose for art that they follow and is part of their living and doing and being and happiness, that doesn’t get stopped because some tool on Facebook doesn’t like it. Or somebody once said at art college that their artwork looked like “a load of old grass stains” (which is a direct quote of something that was said to me at college.)
Interestingly, if you are waiting for people to be horrible to you on the internet about your art, in like 20+ years of sharing artwork, I have had one horrible email! And it was almost the first thing I ever shared, I got a horrible email. I put this painting on eBay and someone wrote something nasty to me, and eBay immediately deleted his account!
So, and since then I’ve only ever had positive criticism. I’ve had some designs sent back, but with very reasonable reasons about why it’s “not quite for our market.” Actually being cut down – once, outside of university – university lecturers think it’s their job to cut down the students and make there fewer artists to compete with them when they leave. But otherwise – not all! I had some amazing lecturers.
But outside of university, I’ve had one person be horrible to me, sharing my art. In my life, all the craft fairs, all the exhibitions, all the, you know, internet sharing – only one person.
So, this is a movement not about being a good critic. This is a movement not even about being good at constructive criticism. This is a movement about getting in the practice, getting in the happiness that comes from practicing something you do well. And so, it’s “share and nurture.” Everybody who uses the hashtag, the comments should be nurturing. I will simply remove, I won’t even rebutt, I will simply remove non-nurturing comments from anybody’s anything.
And even if something is frankly, technically not very good, the point is, we want them to continue until they are technically good! Of course they’re not going to be good if they’ve not done 10,000 hours. Who’s good at anything, who hasn’t done 10,000 hours? You know you’re not even a good driver until you’ve been driving around 6 years or something. (Unless you persist in being a bad driver and not learning your skill.)
So, I also recommend that people do find good drawing courses, but there are lots out there. The point is, the practice, the doing. You learn by doing even more, than you learn by learning those technical skills.
And, gosh I’m rattling on. I’m going to do this in one take and not edit it because I’m literally doing it in my car in the park to get 2 minutes away from excited children, to talk to my phone!
Yes! That’s my complete list! That’s what I wanted to tell you about Unquit Art. The website is unquit.art. So it’s www.unquit.art where I’m sharing my art, and my art tips to keep you creating. The hashtag is #unquitart.
I hope that it even brings you a little happiness. You don’t have to draw every day. You don’t have to buy my book. (Which doesn’t exist yet!)
I will publish it one way or another, with a partner or by myself. However, if you want to ask me for help and you don’t want to buy my book, I just want to see people create!
I want to see people create and generate a movement which brings happiness and create to other, so that I can say, you know, at the end of my days, I was “rich” because I genuinely managed to help somebody!
And thank you for that! Thank you for listening! Goodbye!
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