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A Powerful Teacher
By dflegge | August 25, 2007
Hello All,
What is it with my summer! I have failed to paint as much as I wanted to. Is it the sunny days that enticed me to head for the mountains? Is it all those street festivals I wanted to see? Is it the music I wanted to hear and dance to at all those concerts that I was tempted by? Or maybe it is the possibility that I was afraid to get started again for fear of failure because I had not painted for a while?
I had been thinking about all this and was interested to find this article in the Fall 2007 Sculptural Pursuit that might get me over the hump to get started again. Rekha Ohal, singer, composer, and piano player who performs in Denver, has written an interesting piece on The Necessity of Failure that stimulated me to clean up my art space and my act and get going again. I’d like to share a few of her ideas.
I have to remember that failure to create is an indicator built into our creative mechanism. Failure indicates that one has moved outside of the box into an unknown zone, and that whatever one had been doing is not working to get one back on track. It is not an indication that one should jump back into the everyday routine but rather that one should stretch and get started again. Successful artists have failed many times but they don’t let that stop them. They take it in stride, learn and move on.
Failure is one of the most powerful teachers of all. It shows us what we are doing to prevent us from moving on so that we can tweak something and do better next time. I am glad most of the concerts and festivals are over so I can get going again with my art. About the beautiful days, well, maybe I can get out in the mountains and plan a plein-air trip. It is not the failure that is the problem but rather the fact that not trying again is the problem. I will try again.
Good luck to all of you, as you start the 2007 Fall Season. Hopefully you have had time to relax, reflect and get inspired to continue to create.
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
Donna Flebbe, President
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