And how he sacrifices to this God

Peter Mohrbacher creates velvety, alien art that seems to come from a parallel dimension. He’s also a supporter of AI art. I talked with him about personal mythology a few months back on a Discord voice chat, and he revealed a secret personal myth of his.

The Personal Myth

He said that when his artistic muse doesn't show up and he's making bad drawings, he imagines that there is a "God of Bad Drawings" which has shown up and that he must pay their toll. To satiate them he must create numerous bad drawings. How many? The god doesn’t say, so he has to keep going until the unknown quota is met.

Pros and Cons of This Myth

Reaching creative plateaus is one of every artist’s many fears. By personifying this fear as a fickle god, it allows you to not only give meaning to this struggle, but to believe that it will pass, if only you are willing to pay the offerings that appease the deity. The God of Bad Drawings allows you to accept that creating bad art is part of the process of getting back to creating great art.

While framing creative struggles as an external force can be helpful, the God of Bad Drawings myth could also risk encouraging a cycle of creating art for the sake of quantity rather than quality. It might also lead an artist to view their inevitable "bad" periods as punishment rather than a natural part of the process.

What Gods Do You Interact With?

Let me know in the comments, and I’ll look at writing a new post about them!