Bad Artist: Creating in a Productivity-Obsessed World
Edited by Nellwyn Lampert, Pamela Oakley, Christian Smith and Gillian Turnbull. TouchWood Editions, 2024.
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The perfect antidote to the toxicity of the current productivity narrative, this collection of essays on creativity features 21 Canadian and international writers, providing warmth, support, camaraderie, and empathy.
In a world that worships productivity, creating for art’s sake is seen as romantic and nearly indefensible. For anyone who has ever struggled to honour their artistic impulses, Bad Artist offers an antidote to this toxic productivity narrative. This collection of essays features 21 Canadian and international writers from a breadth of backgrounds and experiences whose lives are not always proscribed by predictable work schedules or reliable support systems. They fit creating into the cracks of their lives, and through their stories show us all how to keep creating–not producing.
As artists, many of whom have faced systemic barriers, the collection’s contributors offer pragmatic reflections on resisting the culture of productivity, reminding us that creativity can take many forms. Taken together, the essays present a comprehensive rumination on creativity in late capitalism, providing warmth, support, camaraderie, and empathy. It’s The Paris Review meets the Billfold’s “Doing Money” with a generous dash of the friend who knows you’re an artist even on the days when you’re not so sure.
Praise for Bad Artist:
“Bad Artist is a collection of 21 essays about creativity featuring Canadian and international writers who refuse to conform to the narrative of toxic productivity.”
~ CBC Books
“A brilliant collection on the hard truths of the daily nitty gritty for creatives. Mandatory reading for anyone who makes art and culture…for love, money, or both.”
~ David Sax, author of The Future is Analog
“Grounded in generosity, steeped in understanding, wrapped in patience and trust: the essays in Bad Artist meet us in our moments of self-doubt, self-blame, and self-erasure and equip us with the spells and tools to create ourselves back into being.”
~ Kim Pittaway, co-author with Toufah Jallow of Toufah
“Lessons for the writer in patience, anxiety, frustration, illness; the embrace of a garden, the inspiration of Star Trek, the instruction of a tattoo, the interruption of decades, the challenge of neighbours, the wisdom of children, the resilience of lemurs: here indeed is “a mosaic of the joys and sorrows of the perfectly imperfect life.”
~ Sean Dixon, author of The Abduction of Seven Forgers and A God In Need of Help
“Art for art’s sake can seem to be disparaged in a culture that values productivity over all else. . . explore the importance of honouring the artistic impulse instead of focusing simply on production.”
~ Quill & Quire
