Becoming Friends with our Inner Critic
Insights from the artist Ben Shahn
I believe my shift toward visual—and social/historical—storytelling resulted from a constant engagement with my own inner critic.
[Note: These sketches of Ben Shahn were my attempt to imitate his wonderful style: large heads and hands, smaller bodies.]
Thanks for reading The Habit of Art by Kelcey Ervick, an illustrated newsletter about the ups, downs, and loop-de-loops of the creative life. I love writing and drawing these posts and am grateful to everyone who follows along! Here’s a link to Ben Shahn’s The Shape of Content.
I am author of four books, including the graphic memoir, The Keeper: Soccer, Me, and the Law That Changed Women’s Lives (Avery Books/Penguin), which Alison Bechdel of all people calls “a triumph.” Inspired by my own shift toward visual storytelling, I co-edited The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Graphic Literature, which is about making all kinds of comics, graphic poetry, and literary collage.
Author page: https://kelceyervick.com/
Art and stuff on Instagram
Everything you write here resonates with me. I am evolving. My first two books were gardening and horticulture guides. My third book, nonfiction, dealt with parenting children with serious illness. My fourth was a book of poetry and my fifth was to have been a herb gardening book with my own illustrations. I kept painting and never wrote that book. Now I want to combine poetry and visual art and have spent a lot of time on the concept rather than the actual work. Your newsletter is the kick in the butt I needed to JUST DO THE WORK!!! So I thank you.
“Is this my own art?” is such a great guiding question for the inner critic! I find that I veer away from the importance of this question if I’m too caught up in the marketplace and looking at other people’s work. Yet when I’m actually making my own work this is the question that matters the most.
It takes lots of time, creation, and solitude to hone in on our answer (the pilgrimage, as Ben Shahn puts it).