Blue on Green
©2015 Deb Kirkeeide
This piece is on cradled hardboard and is ready to hang as is or if you choose, you can have it framed.
At last....
A finished painting. It's not for lack of painting - I have several in the works, but I've gotten bogged down by this notion of perfection lately. Believe me, it hasn't been very productive.
Perfection in Imperfection
I recently came across a quote by Alice Walker. “In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect.” It was accompanied by a beautiful picture of a forest with bent, oddly formed, moss covered trees. Due to the conditions in this dense forest, these trees have adapted in their growth. And yet they were perfect in their imperfection.
This is the third time this message has crossed my path in various forms lately. It is a lesson in how I let perfectionism get in my way.
I am in the midst of redefining my life and have a lot of plates spinning in the air. I have become frustrated in that I can’t seem to finish many of my projects. I am close, but something stops me. And that something is perfectionism.
In some of discussions with other artists, I hear a common thread of fear that we can’t show our work to the world until it is perfect. Or what we perceive as perfect. I’ve had several paintings in the works that I can’t just seem to finish because I am keep holding them up to some impossible standard of perfection.
But what if we re frame our thinking and accept that in our perceived “imperfection” it is the honest reflection of that moment. Done. Move on to the next one. Tomorrow will bring a new perspective and approach.
I recently came across a quote by Alice Walker. “In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect.” It was accompanied by a beautiful picture of a forest with bent, oddly formed, moss covered trees. Due to the conditions in this dense forest, these trees have adapted in their growth. And yet they were perfect in their imperfection.
This is the third time this message has crossed my path in various forms lately. It is a lesson in how I let perfectionism get in my way.
I am in the midst of redefining my life and have a lot of plates spinning in the air. I have become frustrated in that I can’t seem to finish many of my projects. I am close, but something stops me. And that something is perfectionism.
In some of discussions with other artists, I hear a common thread of fear that we can’t show our work to the world until it is perfect. Or what we perceive as perfect. I’ve had several paintings in the works that I can’t just seem to finish because I am keep holding them up to some impossible standard of perfection.
But what if we re frame our thinking and accept that in our perceived “imperfection” it is the honest reflection of that moment. Done. Move on to the next one. Tomorrow will bring a new perspective and approach.
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| Whale art by Eva. |
Watch a child draw sometime. They do it with joy and abandon. And when they are done they are happy and proud. They don’t worry or over analyze. That scribble may not look like a whale or that line look like water But you know what? It’s perfect. It was done with joy and honesty and that’s all that matters.
More thoughts on this in a future post. In the meantime I'm going to embrace my imperfections!
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