Perfection kills creativity

Have no fear of perfection — you'll never reach it.
~ Salvador Dali

 Perfection kills creativity.

 I have been noticing especially this year 2016 how much perfection is a “bully” how it kill’s joy and creativity in my life, let me explain.
 As a knitter I find some yarn (I go for the yarn first) then find a pattern, I try to pair them up both as best as I can, because I never do anything by the book….then as the sweater progress the angst sets in. I see that this is not perfect. I have knit the body and as the sleeves are coming along it’s either not enough yarn or the yarn I chose doesn’t look as good as I thought it would.

And it becomes another half knit sweater in the half knit grave yard.

Pattern, something I look to for inspiration and also seek perfection- if I only use this lovely pattern it will be perfect. But it doesn’t. It’s no fun when this disappointment strikes again. As a kid I never used patterns and I wore every gosh darn sweater I knit- because I wasn’t seeking perfection I was creating, enjoying that process. And that was the journey not the end goal- perfect.

I tried out baking for some time this fall I even enrolled in a fancy French pastry school online. The pictures looked perfect, I checked my ingredients once, twice three times to make sure the measurements where correct too. It truly is a miracle I have any hair left on my head after pulling out locks at a time. The cookies, cakes, puff pastry N.E.V.E.R came out as expected, they were either taste less, undercooked or could be used at building material (hard as a brick). When I was a kid baking was fun, mom and I would bake “boller” or something easy and even if it wasn’t the prettiest sweet rolls in town- it was still pretty sweet because again I wasn’t looking for perfection-  I enjoyed the warm soft cardamom flavored buns with hot cocoa....and whip cream.

 

I am also finding this now as I have started to paint. I am petrified of screwing up- making the ugliest marks on my canvas- even starting a canvas I feel as if I need a good shot of whiskey or two.

What is with this???
 It’s a white cloth stretched over a wood frame and I am too scared to touch it with paint in fear of not being good enough- so I either verbally beat myself up or I walk away with my heading low 
-from something that is supposed to be fun and enlightening not to mention creative!

 " Thank you perfection for draining all that is good in my life – creativity."

 So I gave up!
- I can’t win.

Perfection is simply unattainable.
IT'S SO FREEING!

  As I am knitting a red & pink sweater-  you know, these colors “don’t go together” there is really no pattern to this sweater so I am just having fun, though a mindless easy knit- it is giving me pleasure to sit and knit listening to music or talking with my kids instead of counting stiches and tensing up for the probability of a crappy end result.

Baking – even though I have a few good recipes I found a fabby lemon pound cake ( box cake)  Krusteaz, takes 5 min. and we all have something wonderfully lemony and yummy to enjoy with our tea.
I don’t really care anymore- I make the cakes that I know and bake well or the simple cookies-
Not here to impress any one and man, it’s such a relief.
My kids compliment me on the baked goods and that’s all that matter anyway- weather it’s from scratch or a box.

Now the painting- well that’s tough- I see it and myself as a work in progress…baby steps. Lots color exploration and marks what will become of it, I don’t know – challenge is good.

I try to ease up and let myself go…slow and steady wins the race.

 

I will get off my soap box now, thank you for reading.

May you all enjoy a most beautiful creative day as you see it.
 

You see, when weaving a blanket, an Indian woman leaves a flaw in the weaving of that blanket to let the soul out.

~Martha Graham