Every fourth Saturday of the month, the multi-purpose room beside the Eno Arts Mill gallery turns into a classroom. Folding tables and chairs and slew of donated art supplies fill the space for three hours of individual and collaborative art. Breaks are worked into the schedule, but most participants are so focused they only pause to get water or eat some of the provided snacks.
Marty Rogers, a Raleigh writer and collage artist, was this month’s guest teacher at Bad Art Club in Hillsborough. In between presenting to the class of a dozen participants, Rogers worked on a project of their own.
“I’m just kind of combining colors that I feel like wouldn’t usually go together because I feel like this is a great time to just be able to just mess around and experiment,” Rogers said, “whereas when I’m in my studio or just by myself it feels more high stakes almost.”
Rogers said Bad Art Club is all about trying out new techniques… and color combinations:
“I really am such an orange hater, I feel like it’s like my least favorite color and I’m also not that big of a green fan, so I decided to put them next to each other and it looks absolutely hideous but I’m still excited about it because at least I tried,” Rogers added.
Bad Art Club was created just over a year ago by local artist Shady Kimzey. Kimzey pitched the idea to Eno Arts Mill in February 2023 just after leaving their job at UNC. The class is organized by the Orange County Arts Commission and the Eno Arts Mill and is sponsored by Grow Your World, which is a local tutoring and arts nonprofit.
“I wanted to create a class for, you know, new artists, non-artists and people that just love to create, in a low stakes environment where we focus on the process of making art and not the outcome being necessarily ‘good,'” Kimzey said.
Kimzey got their masters in education and has always loved to teach, but they thought of their sister as the “artistic child” of the family. Then, in 2017, Kimzey started journaling as a way to work through some mental health challenges.
“I started journaling and my journals became more and more art-based and creative, and that’s when I just realized that art was really healing for me,” Kimzey said, “And so I was just going to really lean into it, even though I didn’t think I was good at it. And I still, you know, don’t think I’m necessarily good at it, but it brings me a lot of healing, it helps me process, it helps me communicate and it helps me understand myself and others.”
This philosophy is what guided Kimzey to create Bad Art Club – a space where others who have similar hesitations about doing art can feel comfortable engaging with it. Kimzey said Bad Art club is for anyone and everyone, from beginners to pros – and the art isn’t actually bad at all.
“People understood this idea and are buying into it beyond just me,” Kimzey said, “I wasn’t sure if ‘bad art’ would make sense to people, and it did.”
To combat financial barriers commonly present in the art world, all artists who teach at Bad Art Club are paid. Artists are also paid to be in Bad Art Company markets and exhibitions, instead of having to pay an application fee or pay for a spot. It costs $40 to sign up for a class, but participants are urged to take home supplies afterward to continue working on their pieces at home.
Returning attendee Laura Rosbottom said she plans to keep coming back.
“Since I was a child I loved creating and making things,” she said. “I’ve never felt like a great artist but I’ve always wanted to do it anyway so now I’m just trying to jump in and do as much of it as I can.”
Rosbottom said she likes to see what the people around her come up with.
“If you’re afraid to be an artist,” Rosbottom said, “then come to Bad Art Club because you can see that everyone is an artist.”
The Eno Arts Mill in Hillsborough where Bad Art Club is hosted every fourth Saturday of the month.
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