The importance of Failure

Failure is just the step before success, even though it feels like light years away from where you want to go. How many times have I rolled in the dross of my painting failures that are just gobs of goo sliding off the canvas only to find a spark a few days later and have it almost break my heart with beauty.

I should learn to embrace the step not as a monument to how inept I am but a door to the next level of seeing. You cannot always recognize new things right off the bat. Your eyes have to grow accustomed to the new light.

You have to get away from it and ponder something else for awhile then come back and look again.

A painting I was going to destroy(read paint over) became a beautiful thing when I started painting over it. I did not have white handy so I used some flesh color and started smearing away. You could still see the painting under it as the flesh was semi transparent. I put it aside to let it dry. People came into the studio and started exclaiming how they loved the painting that way. So dreamy. So it sat a bit more then someone offered to buy it like that. Then I saw it. As soon as they said those words I saw what it could become and I finished the work. Now it is going to live in a house in Seattle where it will be loved for years.