Making Bad Art at Factory 3
One of our members, Daniel Freedman, is teaching a new class called Making Bad Art. I’ll risk ruining his joke and say it now: there’s actually no bad art in Daniel's class—or anywhere at Factory 3 for that matter.
Making Bad Art explores the purpose of art and goes against many conventional beliefs. I love the concept because it meshes perfectly with what I want Factory 3 to be: a welcoming community space where it’s safe to explore, express yourself, and maybe, just maybe, break through a barrier that’s been holding you back.
Read on for a Q&A I did with Daniel about his class, Factory 3, and life.
Factory 3 member & instructor Daniel Freedman doing oil painting on one of our communal tables. Photo by Factory 3 member Grace Korman (@jamesjensen.design)
PATRICK:
Why did you join Factory 3?
DANIEL:
I joined Factory 3 because my cats kept trying to eat my oil paints and getting their fur all over my paintings. I saw a poster for a makerspace and figured I would check it out. And so I did. And so I am here today writing this. Fate, destiny, cat hair, etc.
PATRICK
What has kept you here as a member?
DANIEL:
While my cats’ diabolical behavior got me involved, it was the community and atmosphere of the space that has kept me working here for over a year. I have had a fairly stormy year, and Factory 3 has been the closest space I have had to a home during this period. I am grateful for its existence and my place in it.
PATRICK:
How would you describe our community?
DANIEL:
I would describe the community at Factory 3 as involvement at the level in which one feels comfortable. If you wish to put on headphones and sit in your corner peacefully, no one will bother you. If you wish to meet new people and become involved in the communal aspects of the space, people are extraordinarily and universally welcoming and kind. It is a space where one may be as they are, or become something different. All are welcome without question or complaint.
PATRICK:
What made you want to teach a class called "Making Bad Art"?
DANIEL:
I am teaching a class that I call “Making Bad Art”. This is a bit of a joke.
There is no bad art in my class, there is no good art in my class. It is taught in direct opposition to that dichotomy. To the poison of art criticism. Positive criticism, negative criticism, constructive criticism, whatever. I am opposed to aesthetics, quality, and anything that forgets the artist, and misunderstands the true purpose of art.
The true question the class investigates is something I have been thinking with for seven years now. Perhaps my whole life. This question is such: what is art for?
Surely it need be for nothing but itself, of course.
Of course.
Still it plagues me. I could go on for hours and pages on this question. In fact I have. And also I will. In essence this class is the practice of this question, and it is the answer to this question.
So if you are curious, come take it.
PATRICK:
The name "Factory 3" makes reference to the third industrial revolution (the maker movement). Would you describe what you're doing here as revolutionary?
DANIEL:
Nothing I do is radical or revolutionary. Even revolutions are not revolutionary.
All I want is to live in a world in which the child who creates a drawing, who shares it out of love for themselves, and love for the one whom they share with, is the acknowledged center of artmaking.
This child does not share their work to be told they did a good job. They do not seek to improve the aesthetic beauty of their work. They share because they made something, and they wish to share with the world.
Sharing is the way I wish for others to see artwork. Centered around artists, centered around relationships that form through art.
A radiant sun where we bask in the joys and sorrows of community.
