Sometimes You Have to Fail

The piece that you've been working on just didn't turn out quite right and, no matter how hard you try to fix it, it only seems to be getting worse and muddying up. You didn't think something through enough and made a grossly insulting statement or gesture in your work that was wholly unintentional and that you had never even noticed. Your work was interpreted as something other than what you meant it to be. You weren't accepted into a show you really wanted to get into or, worse yet, you did get in and then found that your piece was poorly received because no one understood it. You were reviewed by a well-known art critic who completely reamed your work...

As visual artists, we can and do make a lot of mistakes and can encounter a lot of setbacks. We also learn from those mistakes. I hate to use a cliche, but there is an old saying that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Essentially, by taking risks and challenging ourselves, we allow ourselves the opportunity to grow and be creative. Not everything we do will be a success, but that's okay. We aren't perfect and our imperfections are part of what makes us interesting because they help to make us different, diverse and multi-faceted. So, just because something didn't turn out like you wanted doesn't mean that the experience and effort was a complete loss. We can all stand to learn and grow from these experiences, emerging and established, young and old.