Our
preoccupation with trying to achieve perfection has been questioned
by writers and artists many times.
Mark Twain called our faults `baggage'... She was a sinking ship,
she had no baggage to throw over board, while he on the other hand,
would limit himself to one cigar a day, then find that the cigar
kept getting fatter and fatter, bigger and bigger. Of course if he
ever got sick he would have plenty of `baggage' to throw overboard.
He would be alright, he would survive.
When working on a painting, I have a definite idea of what it is I'm
after, and when it doesn't work I feel that I've failed. Then I have
to fight the strong desire to throw it out.
But I have learned, that it is often these very faults, that redeem
the work.
This is also why a starting-out-painter, will often not want to
continue working on a piece when things don't go the way he likes. A
painter must commit to his painting, stick with it and finish it.
Sometimes the things in a picture that we think are faults, are
strengths. Often it is these that show our personality, who we
really are rather than who we try to be. In art, our faults can be
our friends.
