[PERFECTION] is a tight box
"Art is never finished, only abandoned" ~ Leonardo Da Vinci
To me, art almost always speaks more forcefully when it appears in an imperfect, accidental, and fragmentary way, somehow just signaling its presence, allowing one to feel it through the ineptitude of the interpretation. I prefer the Chopin that reaches me in the street from an open window to the Chopin served in great style from the concert stage. ~ Witold Gombrowicz
I always felt that the last 10% of a project or any undertaking really, takes as much effort as the first 90%. It's when my perfectionism and procrastination flare up the most and I find myself stalling more, overthinking every detail. It can take months to finalize a frame for a painting or varnish or a simple task of adding a painting for sale on my website.
Now in all transparency, I feel behind on my new 24 sekki project already. Why? because I’m overthinking and looking for perfection… that color that would be just perfect for how I feel about rainwater and mist, those few lines of poetry that would be just perfect to express the longing for early spring, and that vintage sheet music that would make it all come together… And so, I feel like I’m already behind. When I stop and give myself some grace, I realize that in reality when I chose that project, I specifically wanted to focus on exploration, depth and being more intentional about how I relate to changes in seasons. I didn’t choose a traditional 100 day project format where you do something for 100 days straight. I decided to do 24 explorations over 100 days, which gives it about 4-5 days for each sekki. And so, I can exhale and convince myself that I am back on schedule.
And I remind myself that [PERFECTION] is an elusive tight box we try to contour ourselves into.
In the meantime, here is a painting I call “Whimsical Rain” that can serve as a placeholder for the first sekki
As I still look for some validation, I come across this Steve Pressfield’s quote:
“The closer you are to your soul’s evolution, the more resistance you’ll encounter”
I can’t say that every exploration takes me closer to my soul’s evolution, or can I? What if it simply takes me closer to joy? And joy is what I want to feel the most (Some of you went to see my “Ode to Joy” exhibit in Ann Arbor last summer and we had many conversations about joy, and how important is to “seek joy in every season” and I will write more about it in one of the next posts).
Perhaps a better way would be to focus on what Leonardo Da Vinci said “Art is never finished, only abandoned” and learn to abandon my paintings and let them out in the real world whether I am ready or not.
When I think about perfection, I imagine perfection to be a sort of a mathematical symmetry, and I can’t shake the feeling that perfection feels predictable and with clearly defined borders and even boring. If we are asked why we like a specific piece of art or what we like about our loved ones? It will be something unusual, unique.
The idea of perfection to me feels like no depth and all surface. It’s better to strive for a deeper practice, an expansion of skills, thoughtful conversations, looking for something unique at the edges of our own experiences and explorations. And to be open to whatever we may discover or uncover within us. And perhaps slowly the journey will takes us to something beautiful and completely unexpected.
How do I reconcile all that within my own creative practice? That’s the question I am here to explore for myself. That’s why I call it sloppyperfect explorations. There will be more conversations about perfection and procrastination, and I hope you’ll join in.
Let’s pause for now with the same quote I started:
To me, art almost always speaks more forcefully when it appears in an imperfect, accidental, and fragmentary way, somehow just signaling its presence, allowing one to feel it through the ineptitude of the interpretation. I prefer the Chopin that reaches me in the street from an open window to the Chopin served in great style from the concert stage. ~ Witold Gombrowicz
Thank you for your presence here and being a witness to my creative journey 🌸
with love,
Diana
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p.s. In my opinion, there is a difference between perfection and perfectionism where perfection is something we strive for, and perfectionism is the process we go about.