face of uncertainty

Sunset Tree 2008-2012

 

"Keeping your mind open in the face of uncertainty is the single most powerful secret of unleashing your creative potential."
Michael J. Gelb

When working on a project there are many points of uncertainty that I face. The first obvious one is the blank canvas. The blinking cursor. So much potential and so many questions still to be answered. And asked and to and fro. Sometimes the challenge can arise midstream. That point of questioning whether or not a piece is completed or if more work needs to be done. I have had pieces where this question loomed for years. Hitting me in the face every time I walked into a room. Knowing that the "discussion" was not over but had reach some type of stall. A point of deceptive completion where I try to convince myself that it is finished. Not necessarily because it was indeed finished but rather I did not know what to do next. Or even worse, I had a sense of what needed to be done but feared that experimentation might destroy all of the things that I already liked about the piece.
My painting instructor in college once said that sometimes you have to destroy your favorite part of a painting in order to save the entire work. There may be some brilliant brush stroke or blending of color, that on its own is beautiful, that I feel a need to save like a beautiful baby bird fallen from it's nest into a world of chaos. But it is getting in the way of the artwork coming to a resolution. This was a tough idea to grasp and to overcome, and I have faced it many times. Trying to work around a moment in a painting, a phrase in writing, reworking everything else to try and make it fit.
I have learned that sacrifice is an important element in the creative process. It not only important it is often necessary in order to reach completion. Of course, failure is often a direct result of this process. Though it may be better to say that failure is not a result but a step in this process. I find some of my favorite pieces are the ones I have wrestled with the most. I have invested the proverbial blood, sweat and tears into a painting and as a result there is often more of me entwined in the finished piece.
When it comes down to it the uncertainty is the exciting part for me. I relish that point because it is at the point of struggle that the magic begins to happen. I have completed thousands of pieces in my head. They are perfect and they are unearned. It is through the struggle of creativity that they become alive and gain their meaning.