2: Learning the art of letting go

I’m guilty of it too - overthinking how a project should turn out. Going in with expectations only to be disappointed by the results. This mindset can be dangerous in the world of art. Over the past 2 years at The Makery, I’ve heard countless people make reference to how perfectionist they are or how they can’t let go and just “trust the process”. I swear to God, I used to be the same way and it made me drop out of art school. 

There’s no sugar coating it, learning to let go is a hard lesson for many people. Most of us live in a generally rigid environment where there are set expectations and anticipated outcomes. There are mediums where this approach is necessary to deliver a finished product, but often it simply gets in the way of creative release.

When I used to make paper flowers, my end goal was to create the most life-like, hyper realistic paper sculpture possible. Often I did, but what I discovered over the years was that those annoying little unexpected mistakes (a paper tear, smeared paint, etc.) could actually make my works more realistic if I embraced them. The concept of perfection is a disturbing, subjective definition of what people are expecting, yourself included. When I discovered that “imperfection” was actually much more appealing when it came to my paper flowers, I thought, “well shit! What if I apply this to everything else I do?!”

Now, for better or worse, I have taken on a motto that sounds both inspiring and vomit-inducingly cliche: A mistake is just a new opportunity. 

Accidentally dripped paint on a spot that wasn’t supposed to have paint? New opportunity. 

Dropped pottery that cracked and now you have 4 sad pieces? New opportunity.

Got resin all over your pants you said you weren’t going to wear to work? New work pants (this is why I can’t have nice things). 

This is the first step in learning the art of letting go. Once you start to accept that there is a process and you can, indeed, trust it, you’ll find yourself much more open to allowing yourself to explore creativity more freely. We’ve all stood and shook our heads at modern abstract art saying (depending on company either inside of our heads or letting it slip out of our mouths), “seriously? I could do that”. But COULD you? Are you capable of simply letting go and following the art where it leads you? 

This is not to support all modern abstract art, because for fuck’s sake, some of it I still shamelessly say outloud, “what the hell is this and why on earth has it been created?” But it is worth stepping outside of yourself and seeing that, while maybe you do have the means and materials to make such a thing, did you think of it? (In the case of that gold toilet brush I saw years ago - no, that, as a piece of art, did not occur to me…) 

It’s less about whether or not you can do something, but rather, have you given yourself the creative freedom to explore, unrestrained by judgment, perfectionism, and expectation. At the risk of continuing to sound cliche (my apologies), learning to let go is a journey, but once you’re on it, you’ll discover a whole new way to see the world of art. 

Please tell me, do I use commas correctly? I feel like I use them too much. Is this an ADHD thing? Probably. These days I feel like everything is “an ADHD thing”.