How to enjoy your ugly

by Tasha Blank

Today’s an important day, friends! It’s the one you’re living in, it’s the one you’ve got to work with, and it’s all you need. If I had a dollar for every time I disavowed my work, body, art, social skills (I was the kid who cried when strangers talked to her), relationships, ETC - giving up on them because they didn’t match the ideal version living in my head - I’d have so many freaking dollars. I keep seeing my friends do this to themselves, too. Either we write off our creations because they’re messy and “too” far away from what we think they should be, or we just waste a lot of time between the moment we generate an exciting idea and the moment we finally execute it optimally wishing the hard part would be over and we could magically arrive at perfection. Nothing works like this The messiness isn’t just unavoidable, it’s also a necessary part of the creative process We need a certain amount of chaos to innovate. If we’re going to arrive at a new way of looking at the world (which is what art does), we have to shake things up, jolt ourselves into challenging territory, get ourselves into situations where we truly have no idea what’s coming next or how we’re going to come up with a solution. And what if, during these moments where we feel a hundred thousand miles away from our goal, we not only didn’t give up on ourselves but also started to actually enjoy the haphazard manuscript, fumbling handstand, muddy canvas, or the sketchy business plan - because that's what our life is right now, and it's not going to last long anyway. What then? Good things, I think. I leave for the west coast in 2 weeks! Catch me in DC tomorrow + in NYC for The Get Down next week :) go go go! xo Tash + The Get Down is back at Cielo next Thursday + Music from last week's Get Down is up + I'm headed to DC for my first hometown gigs tomorrow + My full fall tour schedule is live here (instagram)