Having been sidelined by personal issues, and wary to share them, it's been hard to stay in touch with people that connect with me through my art, Facebook, or any other medium. My behind the scenes process has been improving tremendously, and I hope that my efforts will soon be more visible. Coming out of a long depression, I had found myself in an awkward transitional phase that was very uncomfortable.
I'm a perfectionist at heart, but I have really been working to transcend that characteristic. When every little detail must be *just so*, it's much easier to not even begin because perfection is... difficult. (Even now it's hard for me to let go of the notion that perfection is impossible.) I've been adopting the practice of just getting things done regardless of whether I can achieve the improbable perfection I've dreamed up ahead of time. I'm learning to see my mistakes through a gentler lens. It's trying. It results in temper tantrums and cussing and crying. Really really.
This baby blog is one of the several baby steps I'm taking to let go of perfectionism, and to just progress. I have an idea of what I would like this blog to be eventually, but I'm not even going to spell all of that out yet. I'm just working on having a consistent work flow that includes publishing a new blog post each week.
Annoying inner voice rambles anxiously, "Do you even have real content? Does anyone want to read this stuff? Don't you write so earnestly that it's just... not... cool? WTF is cool? Do you really think that this is what you should be focusing on? Isn't this cheesy? ARE YOU EVEN AN ARTIST?!" That's really just a little sample of the shit* I have to ignore to get anything done.
*I cuss, hi.
ANYWAY. Once upon a time, it seemed that people appreciated my confessional style of writing and sometimes I'll be engaging that way again. Perhaps keeping more privacy, perhaps not. We'll see. I will share more content related to what I'm making than anything else, but generally I feel more open than I have in years past. As I alluded to a couple paragraphs ago, I do have a few ideas of how to take this space further once I'm comfortable taking the training wheels off. I don't want to jinx them with my loud mouth and now I will stop the vagueness and move on. The issue I have being an idea generator is that one simply cannot implement every. single. idea. one has. Not until one has learned how to bend the space-time continuum at least.
Still working on that bit.
Of course by now, many of us have seen articles about the Japanese art of kintsugi and maybe even found solace in that knowledge. I have. It's an art from that relies on mistakes: broken pottery is mended with gold, making the items even more valuable. The Korean artist Yeesookyung has taken kintsugi and elevated it by using the technique to create the joins in his Translated Vases. Taking inspiration from kintsugi in its traditional and contemporary forms, I want to lovingly tend to my flaws and make them golden; I want to morph them into something completely different, and find them beautiful in their new form.
Stay with me weekly, and we'll figure out what the hell I'm up to together, it's an adventure! Next week I'll have some announcements and some pretty things of my own to show you.
What would you like to read here? Post ideas on my Facebook page!