Being creative is hard

While Ben was here, Susan was kind enough to spend an afternoon teaching us to screenprint. We did this in a very low tech way, using newsprint stencils on the screen. Ben designed a cat with a moustache. He took the cut out pieces and stuck them on my face. VERY PRETTY.

I had a hard time with this project. We were supposed to pick something simple and easy, with a few different layers, in order to practice the concept of multiple colors and layering. I felt a lot of pressure and couldn't decide on a drawing. Eventually I just ended up helping Ben with his cat, and I gave up on my piece. He told me afterwards that I can't have everything be perfect. That sometimes I just have to let it go, and accept that there will be mistakes.

It made me sound like a hard ass, but it's true. I have this awful 'all-or-nothing' attitude sometimes, and it doesn't get me anywhere good. Although, I feel like the work I see that seems effortless was probably anything but. Pollock's drip paintings, Marcel Dzama's rootbeer watercolors... They all look so easy. But they're not. And there were many steps in between Point A and Point B that we never see.

I'm sure it's all about balance, and this is what I will have to master.