Perfection

Progress and Fear


Fleur de Lis constructed book 2005-ish

2016 is a little more than just half over, and looking back my decision to work on self improvement this year, instead of obsessing about my artwork, has paid off and in strides.

By self improvement I mean investing not only in my health, but also my art business. I've been busy taking business, art, and other types of classes.  I also spent a good chunk of coin on books (all bought used thanks to Amazon) and art supplies.

I've also have been upgrading my studio equipment I'm now an iPhone/Mac user, and had equipment serviced: my Janome 6500 no longer clunks when using the zig zag stitch, and my studio lamp now turns on every time, and actually stays on.

To be honest June into July has felt a whole lot like christmas!  But I won't lie, while I made this decision back in December of 2015, it was hard at first, I felt guilty. I justified taking classes that meant growth. I had to overcome fear.

The fear of "what if"?

It's doesn't happen all of the time.  But it does happen.  It happened today, about an hour ago actually.

What if the sewing machine doesn't work when I plug it in, and turn it on.  My 60 day service warranty expired yesterday and I hadn't started up the machine since I picked it up from servicing.

Yup, you're not the only one, there's a huge tribe of us out here in the land of the internet that all suffer from fear induced procrastination.

I'm finishing up some handmade book signatures this afternoon, I will film the process, for my Pretty Pigments class that starts September 6th.  I'll be posting about the upcoming class and soon, yes I have tons of fear, and procrastination, about teaching online again.  And I have every intentions of putting that fear to rest.


Done is Betther than Perfect?

Lynn Krawczyk asked this question on her blog this morning and my response was:

"Perfection is an addiction to disappointment"










I used to get myself wound up and pretty tightly over my work an wanting it to be perfect, now not so much.  One of the things I've come to realize is that once a piece is done if I don't like it a year later it's ok to change the work or even destroy it, but by striving for perfection I would never finish the piece. 


We can remain stuck and live with continual disappointment or we can move forward declare it done and create more works of art.