Anything worth doing is worth doing badly

Anxiety is a huge struggle for me. It holds me back. It inhibits my ability to complete assignments because I'm afraid of doing them wrong or badly.

I'm going to counseling for my anxiety and this week my counselor suggested something to me. He said to tell myself, "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly." It's a new idea for me. I hate trying to do something and having it not turn out right. I'm embarrassed to turn in an assignment that isn't done fully or correctly. I'm afraid to fail at something.

This idea will help me a great deal in school, but I think it will also help in my art. Art is definitely worth doing for me, so why not do it badly sometimes? I can't be good at everything my first try. I can't always make a masterpiece work of art. Perfectionism doesn't typically help my art. It's okay to do it badly. I may not get the grade I want. I may not receive the praise given to good art. But that is okay, because I am improving. I am doing something worthwhile, even if I'm doing it badly.

Art vs. Design

What is the difference between art and design?

I feel like design is typically a form of art that is created for a specific purpose. It is less of an "art for art's sake" type of thing. Design is more commercial, more publicized.

Art is less public. Art is created because it can be, not because it needs to be. Art can be very exploratory. Not that design can't be, but art is more so.

Modernism

Modernism is about art for the sake of art. It's about simply creating. Modern art, I think, is not about making something representational, as it is with other art movements. It's about feeling and movement and exploration. In the Modernist Painting reading that we had, it says, "Realistic, illusionist art had dissembled the medium, using art to conceal art. Modernism used art to call attention to art." I think that, much like modern dance, modern art is a break-away from traditional art and is instead an expression of freedom.

Making it Small in Hollywood--response

I think the two pieces suggest that we should not be afraid to fail. It takes a lot of time and hard work to get our artwork to the point where we are satisfied and happy with it. As we are learning how to make art, we need to practice and mess up and fail a good many times before we can get it right. Not every artist can be a prodigy and get it right the first time. It's okay to make art that's just okay. There will be some people that love it, some that hate it, no matter what you do. 

Personally, I am a perfectionist, so it's hard for me to let go of trying to make it perfect the first time. It is difficult to experiment with new mediums because I haven't figured them out yet, which is the reason for experimenting. I have ideas and visions of how my art will turn out, but it's frustrating when it doesn't get there, or if I think it's there but then it doesn't feel right and I need to change something. I guess I just need to let go of my need for perfection and be okay with it not turning out right. I can always try again and again.


Original post: http://397issuesincontemporaryart.blogspot.com/2016/09/httpwww.html

Aesthetic Autobiography

Brandon Dorman
Georgia O'Keefe
me
Mondrian
Inka Essenhigh