Activate Imposter Syndrome

How to quiet the monster mind.

Hi, everyone.

Last week was super fun. I had an art opening at Replicant and many people gathered and listened to music and Chelsea and Joseph and I read and folks walked away with zines.

he he he

There was a buzzing energy in the room and people seemed to have a good time. I was slightly mortified to have my comics and cartoons hanging on the wall, because I’m still learning what I’m doing with my drawings.

Activate Imposter Syndrome!

so fun and so easy

I was much more comfortable reading my fiction at intermission than I was having people lean in and look at the little cartoon self portraits of me trying to meditate or falling into my phone or of Ozzy peeing on yucca plants.

But my friend Lisa said something that stuck with me––she was like, “it’s okay to share work with people at different points in journey.”

I totally agree.

In fact, that’s what this whole substack is about––sharing the process, giving glimpses of how things are made, and letting people into thinking behind it. Process of over perfection.

My mind right now

I’ve been trying to draw every day for a few months, and part of that journey has been learning to think in my sketchbook. Here’s what’s come up this week. The pressure, the little devils that live inside me, the flowers that occasionally bloom in my brain, and a rumination on the pressure I put on myself to make and create.

three eyed me yelling at me

No pressure

original sketchbook drawing of the idea

Who is in there

Hey there little guy

this one is with gouache (the one above watercolor)

sometimes it feels like this too

and other times like this

Those are the different manifestations. I’ve found that the best antidote to imposter syndrome is to go through it. Just keep making, keep getting better, keeping doing the thing.

Would love to hear how y’all quit the monster mind.

Update addendum (new writing!)

I have an essay in Edge of the World: An Anthology of Queer Travel Writing. It includes work by Alexander Chee, Edmund White, Daisy Hernández, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Denne Michele Norris, Garrard Conley, Raluca Albu, and many other incredible writers. You can buy the anthology by clicking the link above.

And I’m in NYC this week for the launch of Volume 0 Issue 7, Book of the Month’s new literary magazine.

Onward,

Genevieve ✏️