You know what… it’s easy to show only your best work all the time.
Every artist does it, especially if the focus is to sell artwork. I would say that most galleries would suggest to all artists to never show any of their work unless it was the best. There have been artists over the years that have trashed everything but their best work.
I’m going to take a hard stance on this and say it’s total bullshit. It’s the failures that get us to where we are today, it’s the day in and day out working on getting better turning out “bad” work that really counts. We all love the days when the paint just rolls off the brush or the drawing feels effortless. Heck, I love finishing a well done piece, the rest of my day feels that much more complete. But, learning to live with all the other days that out number the good ones, about 5 to 1 in my case, is where it’s hard and much more rewarding.
Yeah, a bit of this rant is me just defending myself on the small amount of throw away drawings as of late, and I acknowledge that. But that is the key word, “acknowledge”. I recognize where I’m at and I don’t run from it or hide it. The reality is, that all artists over the centuries have sucked more days than they have not. It’s too bad that we are being taught or coerced to hide our failures instead of embracing reality.
For any artist out there that is reading this and struggling to get better, here is the secret…
Work your ass off, every day, embrace your failures, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.
- Do something, and try not to repeat previous mistakes
- Recognize what you did right
- Recognize what you did wrong
- Repeat
It’s just that simple… NO, it’s not simple, it’s freaking hard! But if it was easy it wouldn’t be worth it.
Ok, my rant is over for now…
PREACH!!!!
It’s that mentality of showing only your good work that gives the impression of “talent” versus hard work, and people not understanding how hard you work for your craft.
Keep up the good work, AND the bad work. Keep it all up! It helps us grow!