Failure is the best part of your practice

I am a perfectionist in every other aspect of my life, EXCEPT my art. I do not believe in perfectionism in the process of making art. When it comes to abstract art, thinking is the enemy. I have to dance, cry, pace, squint, and express my way through every piece I create. When it comes to art and the process of making art, I love failure. Yep, you read that right. I love it; it makes my art better.

When I decide to create a painting, collage, or mixed media piece, it’s part ritual and part practice. There is comfort in the ritual. That helps with making the blank canvas jitters disappear. The second part, I will admit, takes time. Practice doesn’t make perfect in art, at least not abstract art. Practice makes you comfortable with your process. Practice makes you comfortable with your mark-making. Practice makes you comfortable with your color choices. Practice makes you comfortable with tone and value. In short, practice is the key to never feeling like you are failing at your art.

BUT, if your practice doesn’t include some kind of leveling up, where you are forced to hold space for uncomfortable frustrations, it will never get better. And by better, I mean more layered and interesting. It will stay very one-note.

Andy Warhol’s soup cans are a really great example of what I’m talking about. All other social commentaries on consumption and pop culture aside, at the heart of his soup cans, was repetition. Creating the same kind of art over and over. Now, unless you are Warhol, which none of us are, this is never a good idea even in representational art. Why because we have evolved into humans that LOVE a snowflake, wait…no, that’s not…that’s a different conversation.

We love one-of-a-kind art. Now, I know what you’re rethinking; all abstract is one-of-a-kind. Yes, but there are also many abstract artists creating simple variations on the same color palette, the same three techniques, the same mark-making, and it gets boring. Why? Because there’s no mystery anymore, the depth is gone. You can see that the artist is at a point where they are getting praise or making money, so they keep painting only soup cans. That may be a recipe for a shorter art career. That’s not to say artists can never have success recreating the same art over and over, but what I am saying is most artists aren’t able to do that, we have to keep pushing ourselves to grow. I mean even Warhol experimented a LOT before being known for his pieces that are most famous.

So, where does failure fit in? Failure is the best part of any art practice. It’s when you know you’re going somewhere because you are giving it your all. You are testing all your skills, techniques, and knowledge, pushing yourself to be better. This is frustrating! But if you keep practicing pushing your boundaries instead of repeating old ways. You will get better and fast.

Failure has to happen if you push yourself. Not a single artist ever got better by just repeating themselves; they just got really good at staying on one level.