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Ember Hill (they/she) is the artist and anti-teacher behind The Bad Art Teacher and The Unseen Realm. Their work explores creativity, culture, and consciousness through a lens of rebellion, unlearning, and radical acceptance. Here in The Lesson Plan, Ember invites you to question the invisible rules shaping your creative life — and to make gloriously bad art anyway.

Ember

Messy truths, private thoughts, and lessons learned the hard way. These are the unfiltered confessions behind the creative process — where vulnerability becomes rebellion.

Personal reflections from The Bad Art Teacher on imperfection, shame, and creative recovery. Honest stories about what it means to make, fail, and begin again.

Confessions from the Bad Art Teacher | Creative Honesty & Unlearning Perfection

Confessions from the Bad Art Teacher

Cultural and systemic critiques of art, capitalism, and the myth of productivity. A slow dismantling of the machine that taught us our worth was in our output.

Explore essays on unlearning productivity culture, perfectionism, and capitalist conditioning in art. Reclaim creativity from the machine.

Deprogramming the Machine | Culture, Capitalism, and Creative Resistance

Deprogramming the Machine

Rituals, prompts, and philosophies for creative freedom. A spiritual rebellion through practice — where making becomes medicine.

Creative exercises, reflections, and rituals for artists reclaiming joy, intuition, and creative flow beyond perfectionism.

Creative Liberation Practice | Rituals & Tools for Creative Freedom

Creative Liberation Practice

Short musings, quotes, or memes — the bite-sized thoughts and visual notes that carry the spirit of The Bad Art Teacher.

Short reflections, memes, and thought experiments from The Bad Art Teacher — reminders to stay curious and imperfect.

Class Notes | Snapshots from The Bad Art Teacher

Class Notes

Long-form essays, cultural observations, or experiments in process — where ideas evolve in public.

Explorations into the intersections of art, identity, and liberation. Extended writings and creative research from The Bad Art Teacher.

Field Studies | Essays on Art, Identity & the Creative Psyche

Field Studies

A Starter Kit for When You Want to Make Something But Every Idea Feels Wrong, Blank, or Too Much

If you want to make art but feel blank the moment you try, you’re not out of ideas—your system is overloaded. Learn what’s actually happening underneath and try simple Bad Art Teacher prompts to get unstuck fast.

Creative Block or Creative Interference? Understanding the Blank Page Freeze

The Bad Art Menu

A bite-sized musing on how chaos, intuition, and messiness shape creativity far more than order ever could.

Chaos is a creative method. This post reclaims mess, intuition, and disorder as powerful forces in a world that worships perfection and productivity.

Philosomeme: Is Chaos Inherent to the Creative Method? | The Bad Art Teacher

Philosomeme: Chaos = Creative Method

We didn’t invent our ideas of “good art” — we inherited them from colonial, capitalist systems that gatekeep beauty and creativity. This piece unpacks how “bad art” becomes a form of resistance: a way to unlearn the rules, reclaim intuition, and make art that serves you, not the hierarchy.

Discover why “bad art” isn’t a lack of skill but a rebellion against colonial beauty standards, capitalist creativity myths, and the pressure to make art that performs.

Why “Bad Art” Is a Rebellion Against Colonial Standards of Beauty

When perfectionism meets productivity culture, creativity gets crushed. This post explores how making “bad art”—that is art that rejects polish, productivity, and external validation—can help you reconnect with your creative freedom, rebuild self-trust, and rediscover joy in the process of making.

Perfectionism and productivity culture silence creativity. Discover how making “bad art” — messy, honest, and imperfect — helps you rebuild self-trust, recover your joy, and unlock true creative freedom.

Why Making Bad Art Might Save Your Creative Life | The Bad Art Teacher

Why Making “Bad Art” Might Save Your Creative Life

A bite-sized musing on the blurry line between being human and being an artist. If life itself is our canvas, where does artistry really begin—and does it ever end?

What if being human is its own form of artistry? This Philosomeme explores the idea that life itself is a creative act—and asks whether everyone is an artist, or only those who choose to co-create consciously with the universe.

Philosomeme: Are All Humans Artists? | The Bad Art Teacher

Philosomeme: Human = Artist?

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Creative concept? Actual person? Local cryptid, perhaps? Social movement? Actual school? Or a cult? An introduction to The Bad Art Teacher.

An introduction to The Bad Art Teacher — part confession, part creative rebellion. Artist and anti-teacher Ember Hill unpacks perfectionism, radical acceptance, and what it means to make “bad art” on purpose as a path to creative liberation.

The Lesson Plan

The Bad Art Menu

The Bad Art Menu

Philosomeme: Chaos = Creative Method

Philosomeme: Chaos = Creative Method

Why “Bad Art” Is a Rebellion Against Colonial Standards of Beauty

Why “Bad Art” Is a Rebellion Against Colonial Standards of Beauty

Why Making “Bad Art” Might Save Your Creative Life

Why Making “Bad Art” Might Save Your Creative Life

Philosomeme: Human = Artist?

Philosomeme: Human = Artist?

Who’s This Bad Teacher Anyways?

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