How to quiet your inner critic and follow the magic – with artist Sarah Levy

I met today's guest in the most serendipitous and fun way, and I can't wait for you to hear the story! Sarah Levy is an artist, activist, and teacher who is known around the world for her portrait that went viral in 2015 "Whatever" (Bloody Trump). 

In teaching her students to draw, Sarah instructs on a deeper level, guiding the artists to experiment and grow into trusting and believing in themselves. In this episode, Sarah turns her teachings on us as we learn how to quiet our own inner critics using the principles of art.

This episode is so jam-packed with goodness, you may want to have a notepad handy. Sarah is definitely going to sneak attack you with her artistic wisdom and encourage you to believe in your own personal magic a little bit more.

Sarah's drawing principles:

• Separate maker from critic
• No precious
• There is no bad way to start
• Bad drawings matter (if you're going to go down, go down in flames)
• Always choose freedom over control
• Anything you do to suppress mistakes will also suppress successes

Here are some takeaways from this episode:

• You just need one other person to do something wild
• Be more curious rather than hyper goal-oriented
• No one else cares what the f@$k you’re doing (seriously)
• Clinginess is a sign of lack; A lack of belief in yourself
• It feels really good for others to witness your joy
• To be truly good at anything, be willing to be bad a lot 
• Anything that suppresses mistakes also suppresses the successes (it bears repeating)
• Be playful and have fun
• Follow the excitement, follow the sparkly things

Meet Sarah Levy via her bio and links below:
Sarah Levy is an artist, activist and teacher located in Portland, Oregon, who believes in the power of beauty and in the beauty of faces. Her hope is that there is some magic in a drawing that can make the viewer stop for a second longer to look, and in that second there is the possibility to see more deeply and the possibility to reassess preconceived notions that might only be reaffirmed in a passing glance at a photograph.

In late 2015, in response to remarks made by then-candidate Donald Trump, Sarah used her own menstrual blood and a tampon to paint the portrait “Whatever” (Bloody Trump). The painting quickly went viral and was covered by major news sources around the globe before being acquired by the Bundeswehr Museum of Military History in Dresden, Germany.

Follow Sarah:
Insta