November 13th, 2009
Mistakes
Do you ever find your best work comes out when something goes wrong, or at least, unexpectedly?
Transcriptorial: I have always put my faith / in mistakes.
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I usually give my paintings meaning by accident. I don’t realize that I’ve added a layer of significance until after I’ve done it. I am still not sure whether it’s coincidence or my subconscious…
I can totally agree. My random stylistic choices always fit perfectly.
I call them happy accidents. When you can relax and go with the flow you allow the unexpected to happen.
Yes.
Actually, things go very wrong for me when that happens. Either I am so consumed by the idea that I’ve strayed from my original vision that I cannot enjoy the result; or I like the mistake so much I try to replicate it and fail.
Giving yourself permission to fail goes a long way. I’m not very skilful with my hands, so when I start a new quilt I always ask my SO, “If I ruin this, will you be angry?” I get the startled look and the surprised, “Of course not! Don’t be silly!” I then have permission to fail. Not that I need it, or need it from that person, but it takes the pressure off me.
None of my quilts is square. I don’t know why, but I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler, or a T-square, or anything. But everyone admires the finished product. For me, the fun is in the process anyway.
Quilters have a few sayings I love:
Only God is perfect. (And if you don’t believe in God, then no one is and you don’t have to be, either.)
Don’t worry, it will quilt out.
And my favourite: Don’t worry, no one will notice.
They usually don’t.
Just the other day, a friend of mine was playing around with the “fix” in one of the dark rooms on campus. She was supposed to experiment with the stuff and just decided to dip her hand in the fix and splash the stuff on the picture.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said and kept splashing.
It makes me laugh, but I really do feel like much of the initial creative process is full of mistakes. It’s the best way to learn.
That¡s what experimenting is…playing around to see what happens. I love to read Samuel Pepys’ Diaries (1660-69) about the founding of the Royal Society. They experimented (played around with) prisms, “perspective glasses” (hand held telescopes) and “burning glasses” or magnifying glasses. It was all new then.,..they didn’t really understand the circulatory system, or anything. Such excitement. It’s a good read.
Mistakes take you places you never thought you’d go, they create room for catastrophe to become a beautiful disaster and than somehow work out in the end. A mistake gives you the chances to discover how you deal when things don’t go according to plan, who you really are& what actually matters!
I will always put my faith in mistakes.
I’m still learning to allow myself mistakes, in life more than anything. The creative process usually comes from just outside myself, anyway, like there’s a muse standing just over my shoulder saying, “you know what would be really awesome here?”
No work of mine, i think, would be good if it was a mistake.
i understand that others can do so, but not me.
For me to do anything I focus so intensely that people often have to stop me from running, drawing, or working. I have to focus like that or else I’d quit halfway through and it would be just wasted time.
But, “an unexpected mistake that turned out well” i can do.
That’s how I got with my first love.. I accidently called her pretty ^__^