"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." Joseph Chilton Pearce.
So many of the people I know claim that they can't make art because they strive for perfection right from the start. ART IS A PROCESS. It is distilling the world through your eyes, mind, heart, and soul and then presenting that distillation in your own voice.
It's a lot like life: You will make mistakes. You will look back on earlier works and cringe at their heavy-handedness, at your clumsy attempts. THAT'S OK. All children fall when learning to walk. All artists struggle before finding their own voice.
Every time I start a new project, something that I have never done before, I always view the first work as the learning work. It's the prototype. It's where I learn what works, how it works, and how I can make it better next time. It's OK to make mistakes. It's OK to fail.
Try something new this week. I am trying paper mache again for the first time in 10 years. I am hoping that it will do what I need it to. Only time will tell.
That's what I tell my friend. She is such a perfectionist that it's hard for her to get started. I told her that she was just experimenting with techniques to see what happens. She feels better about the process, and can bring in items to show-and-tell and tell me what she does and doesn't like. Mom
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