Ugly Artwork

Hello creative friends.  This week I was not feeling well so did not do much by way of art, so I decided to talk about ugly artwork.  Or at least what we perceive to be ugly artwork.  If there is anything I've learned over the past couple of years from art journaling, it is to not take myself so seriously, have fun and give myself a break.  In the past I would put so much pressure on myself to create "perfect" artwork that it took all the fun out of creating it.  Here are several examples of artwork that I created and at first thought was ugly artwork, but now see them and my artwork differently.

When I painted this picture I was so frustrated with it and thought it was really bad.  So much so, I threw it in the back of the closet and forgot about it until several years later when I moved.  I came across the picture in the back of the closet and could not figure out what I though was so bad about it.  So I framed it and have it hanging in my living room as a reminder to not be so hard on myself.

Here is a journal page that I created that I thought was ugly.  I still think it is ugly, the background ended up much darker than I wanted it to be and it turned a weird brownish/green color.  

But the few people I have let look through my journal all stop on this page and comment on how much they like it.  Another lesson learned, everyone is different and everyone has different tastes.  So even if you do something you don't like, or someone else doesn't like it, who cares, you can find just as many people who do like it.

Here is another journal page that I created and think turned out ugly.  The colors seemed to muddy on the page.

This year I finally was brave enough to start sharing my artwork online and almost didn't post this one.  However, I am glad I did because I received nothing but positive comments on this page and several people even tagged it as one of their favorites.  Again this has taught me to see my art differently and not to be so hard on myself. 

The two flower paintings I finished a couple of weeks ago and blogged about finishing after they had been sitting for more than 5 years almost didn't get finished.  I became frustrated with both of them before I even finished them and was considering covering them over with something else.  Now that I have finished them, I am happy with the way they turned out and glad that I finished them.  So what about you?  Do you have artwork you created that you was not happy with, only to have someone else like it?   I would love to hear about it.  Let me know what you think.  Until next time.