Art Magick Is Not About Being Good at Art

... It’s About Remembering Why You Create

New Year, New ...? No! Fuck that! Let's talk about creativity. Every January, the city fills with mirrors. Shop windows. Gym fronts. Vision boards disguised as resolutions. We are invited to reinvent ourselves. To upgrade. To polish whatever still feels unfinished, unproductive, not quite perfect yet.

In tat sense, there is a quiet lie that sits at the heart of how we think about (self-)expression and creativity. Sure, it might sound harmless at first: Some people are just naturally talented at expressing themselves. Others are not. Closely followed by its more poisonous sister: You’re only allowed to express yourself and create if you’re good at it.

And somehow, art gets dragged into that same script. When creativity becomes just another tool for self‑optimization. Another strategy. Another promise that this time we’ll finally get it right. Because this thime, you are a 'real' creative one. This time, you become healed one. The confident one. The version of you that looks put together, luminous, complete. And if your creativity doesn’t contribute to that polished self — if it’s messy, uncertain, emotional, inconvenient, or useless — it quietly loses its value. And suddenly, art isn’t about expression and creation anymore — it’s about becoming the right kind of person.

But you see, there's the lie. Creativity was ever meant to perfect you. Art Magick begins where the fantasy of the perfect self dissolves — and expression becomes more important than improvement.

Art Was Never Meant to Be a Performance

Somewhere along the way, art was recruited. It was asked to justify itself. To become productive. To be beautiful, sellable, shareable. To earn its right to exist. And with that, it was asked to link it to your worth. To heal you. Brand you. Motivate you. Turn your inner life into something legible, presentable, and sellable again. In doing so, something essential gets lost.

Sure — art can be transformative. It often is! But transformation is not optimisation.

Art Magick does not ask: Who are you becoming? It asks: What wants to move through you?

Those are not the same question. Improvement climbs. Expression wanders. Art Magick refuses the ladder. Art Magick does not ask what you can produce. It asks what you can meet. Your inner images. Your sensations. Your half-formed thoughts. The parts of you that don’t speak in sentences. What you need for that is not skill, it is presence.

Skill Is a Social Contract — Expression Is a Pulse

Being “good at art” is a negotiated agreement. It depends on: – cultural taste – historical context – access to education – who was allowed to take up space. Perfection, too, is a social invention. A narrow one. Magick doesn’t recognise it. Art Magick doesn’t care about any of that. It happens before technique. Before approval. It lives in the raw moment of contact — when something stirs inside you and leaves a trace. That trace doesn’t need refinement. It needs attention. That trace is the spell.

Why So Many People Lost Their Creativity

Most people didn’t stop creating because they lacked talent. They stopped because they learned to watch themselves. They were taught to correct. To compare. To pre‑empt judgement. Creativity does not survive surveillance. Especially not in bodies that were already taught to be careful: – women – queer people – sensitive people – people who learned early that perfection was safer than presence. Art Magick is a reclamation. Not of skill. But of permission.

Art Magick as a Rebellious Act

To create without aiming for excellence is quietly radical. It refuses: – productivity as worth – beauty as obedience – visibility as validation. Art Magick chooses intimacy over outcome. Process over proof. In a world that constantly asks What does this lead to? Art Magick answers: This leads back to myself.

You Don’t Need a Better Version of You

You don’t need more discipline. Or clarity. Or a cleaner identity. You don’t need to become someone else before you’re allowed to create. Art Magick begins with contact. With your body. With material. With the moment you’re actually in. A line drawn without intention. A sentence written and left alone. A photo taken for no one. No audience. No outcome. Just presence.

Also, You don’t need: a studio, expensive tools or a personal brand. What you need is: – a few uninterrupted minutes – something to make marks with – a willingness to stay curious. Art Magick lives easily in small apartments. In city kitchens. On train rides. Between emails. It belongs to everyday life.

So if you're ready, Take any piece of paper. Make a mark. Not a symbol. Not something meaningful. Just a mark. Then stop. Notice what it feels like not to improve it. That moment — where you don’t correct, explain or justify — that’s where the magick lives. And yes — at first it might itch. It might be uncomfortable to leave it as it is. But with time, you will see, you will learn to embrace it as it is. Somewhere between all of this, I’m reminded of something Helena Bonham Carter once said:

"If you're trying to create something, you've got to not give a fuck" 

In the end: Art Magick is not about being good at art. It’s about remembering that expression was never something you had to earn.