Thursday, October 14, 2010

Terrible Pieces

Recently I posted about my desire to make a living from art, and my simultaneous fear of the learning process and of making mistakes (thank you for the encouraging words you left in the comments! :) ).   I figured one way to get over this hump was to give myself permission to make fifty terrible pieces of art (maybe that's a LOT of terrible art, but I figured better safe than sorry...)  Fifty pieces of technical mistakes, smudges, bad color choices, weird composition, flat faces, uneven facial features, give-up-in-the-middles...  And it helped.

As proof to you, here is Terrible Piece #1 (in background) and #2 (in foreground), both still in progress:


I really am horribly impatient.  I can't wait for paint to dry (even acrylic paint), so I end up smudging lines and smearing colors and tearing holes in paper.  Funny, because when people would hear what I used to do for a living for seven years (working with children with autism), they always exclaimed "Oh, you must be SO patient!"  No.  Absolutely not.  Not me.  Not in any aspect of my life.  I open the oven too soon to check on the cake.  I flip the pancakes before they are ready.  Maybe this explains why I like all my food a little under-cooked.







11 comments:

  1. I love your art, and I love the grungy, shabby art that results from impatience with paint. :D

    Your girls are gorgeous!

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  2. What are you on about!! lol They are BEAUTIFUL! OMG woman - really, really gorgeous! I love the colours you have used, the composition! WOW! ♥♥

    You are too hard on yourself! You are very talented! ♥♥

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  3. Good for you for giving yourself permission to make "mistakes"!! I think your mistakes are beautiful!! Your girlies are adorable =-)

    i can't wait to see more!

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  4. Yeah I'm afraid the only criticism I have is that you are too harsh on your work! It's really cool! My best friend is quite an artist and her stuff is always grubby and messay and mistake laden and that's what makes it ART! It always ends up magical! - Sarah

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  5. I'm the same way. I can't stand to let things dry. And I also like my veggies very crisp. I sure wouldn't say your work is terrible though. Don't be impatient with yourself either.

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  6. I think you're doing awesome Averil! Just keep going. I know what you mean about patience. I don't have much me time between work and family so I like to be able to finish a project fast. Do you have a heat gun? I love it for drying paint in between layers of color. Thanks for the retweet today my friend!
    ♥Jenny

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  7. Are you kidding me!!!? you are crazy, this is so cool!!!

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  8. That's a good resolution. I'll have to give it a try. But I don't seem to see what's wrong with these two pieces. :)

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  9. i think you have got to allow mistakes in order to create!! WAY more than 50! :)

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  10. Thank you for all this wonderful encouragement! You all are so sweet and I truly appreciate it :) Hugs! xoxo

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  11. what in interesting idea to do to give yourself permission like this. I don't think your work looks bad or terrible either. Having just signed up to do my MA art course the first thing our tutor said at the intro was "we want you to go off and experiment and make mistakes because that's how you learn and move forward!"

    I too took this year in hand to commit to making a living from my art, although not a full stream from selling the actual pieces I make (that's just a small part of it) but all the other bits that I love doing too in the name of art. It's been so interesting and I really believe when you make a committment it can and does work. I wish you so much luck. I am much happier now in my work/earning.

    Not only that I have a son with autism (aspergers) and my goodness do I need patience, so I am sure you must have been patient, and yet, I too, relate to the opening the oven too quick etc, I have no patience with many things, but have had to learn it in certain areas now :)

    Happy making.

    Amelia.x

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