Monday, February 22, 2010

Is it Spring Yet?

Looking for great art quotes? Look no further than Picasso. Here's a great collection. My favorite Picasso quote is:

"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. "
Pablo Picasso


I'll admit, I am not always very eager to do what I "cannot do." It would appear that's just an attempt at a failure waiting to happen, right? And I don't really like to fail. But aren't failures a (very important) part of the learning process? I know they are. You can take it from me, an artist and person who has been failing and consequently growing A LOT lately.

This is a little something I had to whip up for my day job (second only to the all-consuming job of Motherhood), as owner and principal designer at Bride Design. Creating this minimalist version of some summer callas went against my natural way of painting. What? I can't use every color in the box on this one? Just purple and green you say? No pen? Just paint? In the end it wasn't a success for the client, or myself, which was disappointing. But I did learn while creating it. Not only did I learn better "how" to paint in this different way just as Picasso talks about, but I also learned FROM the experience of doing and failing at it too.

Failures have an amazing way of leading to focus for me. I'm starting to befriend them, as ultimately these pesky and sometimes painful little wrong-turns, lead towards change, movement, momentum and hopefully, success (whatever that means.)!

2 comments:

  1. I make a lot of bad paintings in order to make good paintings, some times the bad paintings stay bad and sometimes their failureness gets altered into a good painting.

    i am trying to use less to make something more, its hard.

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  2. Failures are not failures unless we think of them as that. Just made that up... but it's true. You are so right... they are learning experiences. I have file cabinets full of learning experiences (otherwise known as rejection letters :o). God bless. Love your "nave" illustration! so sweet! God bless

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