Wasting Away in Captivity, part 1
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I was all set — on paper at least — to blog yesterday on the topic of wasting supplies: a major stumbling block to getting started on art is not only the fear of doing it “wrong” but also the fear of, having done it “wrong,” not having enough paint or wood or whatever to do it again. There’s no point is saying “create all the crap until something good happens” if you can’t afford the materials to do so.
When I was young, I felt this acutely. My family was not poor, by any means, but at the same time we could not afford for me to create large paintings in oil or even acrylic. I worked in miniature, and while some of my tidiness was due to my not understanding the whole ABORTIVE ATTEMPT thing, more than half was due to my not wanting to run out of paint.
I guess I could afford to create large canvases at this point in my life, but I actually do not have a space large enough to do that in. Oh well, maybe next time.
Anyway, I was going to do a little wasting of supplies yesterday to demonstrate the concept of finding cheap materials or throwaway stuff that you could trash with abandon, but I immediately got blocked by my own fear of failure. Oy.
I did work, though, and I actually kind of did what I set out to do, though not as freely as I would have liked for the purposes of this blog. That remains for another day.
Here’s what I came up with: three more postcards for the 50 Postcards Project. Ironically, I started the project a couple of years ago in order to set a goal for myself: make 50 postcards about Lichtenbergian Precepts, at least one a week. I failed utterly of course, but now… I have 52 cards in the 50 Postcards Project. Go figure.
Have a look:
On the back: All things must change to something new, something strange. (Longfellow)
Be new. Be strange. #SuccessiveApproximation
No matter how well-engineered our lives may be, actual growth and blooming and change always happen within us. #MakeTheThingThatIsNot
We can try, but we cannot organize the stars. We can only simplify. #MakeTheThingThatIsNot
Not what I set out to do, but I’ll just to have to settle for success.
SUCCESS IS ALSO AN OPTION.
