Why making ugly stuff is so important
As a kid I’d love to draw and paint. I drew princesses, comics, elves, practiced faces and body postures and experimented with different mediums. I’d love to try any medium I could get my hands on!
Some artists envy children because they are not bound by preconceived beliefs and idea’s what a piece should become. Children just do and make; they have no ego. When growing up your ego forms and ‘wants’ things and most of all tries to avoid the nasty things.
It’s quite understandable that, in this society, you avoid making mistakes. A mistake is something that went wrong, actually to be more precise, something that didn't went like you had envisioned or planned. So it might not be a mistake but another outcome than planned. And that doesn't has to be a flaw perse. But we are drilled for succes, we get grades for our exams, get a D when we have too many spelling mistakes. We only learn to not make mistakes.
Don’t get me wrong, some things are just right or wrong and I’m definitely convinced that you will be taken more seriously if you can make simple math problems and write an e-mail with no mistakes. But what we don’t learn in school is how to make the RIGHT mistakes (don’t get me started about what else we should learn in school but that’s a topic that deserves it’s own blogpost).
Ok, let’s take an example: what would happen if you only make beautiful things? You know the outcome because you’ve practiced and practiced. You are very skilled at this particular thing and everybody loves it. But how can you grow if you keep making the same stuff? What keeps it interesting? For me growing is looking forward and learning from the past. I want to grow as a human being and as an artist, I want to learn new things because if I keep making the same stuff over and over again I’m not growing, I’m standing still.
People often call it ‘stepping outside of your comfortzone’. I think it’s the same as daring to make mistakes. Do something new, try something else, see if it works for you because this way you learn about yourself too! You gotta know what you dislike in order to learn what you DO like. In school we only learn that making mistakes is not getting you anywhere in life. But it’s far from true!
Do you get what I’m saying? It can be scary, of course, but worth SO much! I plan the moments where I say to myself: OK Sara, now you’re just gonna try it, no fussing about and see what comes of it. To be honest, my best work arose from these moments! And when I try to make the same again i’m forcing it and it fails 😂. The reason why it worked was because I wasn't focussing on the final piece but on the process, the brushstrokes, the colors. And the next time it fails because I’m focussing on the result.
So, make ugly stuff! Yeah! Don’t try to be perfect every time, focus on the process and not the result, if you put your heart in it there will undoubtedly immerge something great from it! If it’s ugly you know what to do better next time, and what not. Because beauty is in our mistakes and not in perfection.
Thanks for reading! Bye! 👋
