This is more a reminder to myself than anything. Yesterday I saw a sign at my auto service department that read, "Anything less than excellent is a zero." It acted as a reminder of how perfectionism can be so excrutiatingly limiting and harmful. How, despite having a tiered system, only a perfect score is valued and all else is considered and treated as a failure. It's all or nothing, win or lose... without exploring the realities in-between it becomes so much harder to just be, to just experience the moment.
I am guilty of being hypercritical of myself and tend to be overly harsh on myself for things I wouldn't judge other people for. It's an unfortunate self-imposed cycle of double-standards that is very difficult to challenge as it has become so ingrained and manifests in every aspect of my life. I get bent out of shape when my own artwork doesn't turn out as I would
like, and over the course of my life I have destroyed much of it for
deviating from my vision.
But truly it is our imperfections, differences, and deviations that make us interesting, that make us unique as individuals and not just automatons. If the world were really 100% "perfect" it would be a pretty boring place. I recognize this and am willing to accept it in others and am drawn to artworks in which the artist has made some sort of mistake or error, typically something that they aren't happy with. Partly because I like to see that element of the human touch in things, it makes them more real to me. I just need to learn to accept it in myself as well.
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2 comments:
At my quilter’s group, the ladies have a saying that often gets repeated. . . “Done is better than perfect.”
I always tell myself that the only person who knows that my final product isn’t exactly what was in my head is me. I just have to be good and convincing everyone that what they see is exactly what I intending to create.
Thanks Kate.
I didn't know you quilted. That's very cool.
It does hold true that what one person may see as a flaw another may see as a bonus. I have sold many of my artworks that I wasn't fond of while others I have liked weren't given a second glance.
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