Looking for Perfect

It is so easy to get caught up in all the lovely images we see each day on our social media feeds. Everything is painstakingly curated and planned and it all evokes an image that can make us feel inferior and overwhelmed. With all that input coming at us, it would be understandable if we gave up before we started. But we need to remember that nobody is looking for perfect. We need to remember that perfection is not our main purpose. We do not create in order to make perfect things, but because we love it!

Last night, I sat down at my desk and started recording what I was working on. Unlike my previous video, where I didn’t really have a plan, I did have a specific outcome in mind for this. I had an idea of the composition I wanted and the colors I was going to use. (In the last video, I started recording with literally nothing prepared and spent a lot of time running back and forth to gather supplies.)

Sometimes I think I work better spontaneously rather than carefully thinking a piece out. Compare the tropical abstract referenced above with this piece: I love the abstract while I’m not thrilled with how this one turned out.

I could have kept working, and I may go back to it at some point, but my intention of spending just 15 minutes on it had stretched to 19 and I didn’t feel like it was getting any better. But I thought it was important to share this anyway.

The message here is that perfection is not the point of creativity. Not everything we make is going to turn out just the way we plan. It’s OK if you don’t like what you make. But don’t keep looking for perfect. If you wait to make things until you think you are ready, you will never be able to create the way you want to. So show up. Spend time in your creative space. Some things will be good – others will not. You’ll never know until you actually do it. We have to risk making bad art before we can ever hope to make something “good.”