In the life of an artist, or any creative for that matter, we are sure to be confronted with the evil monster of failure sooner or later. Failure is an inherent effect of risk, and risk is and inherent effect of artistry. Therefore, as artists, it is time that we embrace this monster and find a way to call him friend.
I have made a few observations about failure recently that I would like to share.....
I have made a few observations about failure recently that I would like to share.....
One, for the artist, failure is usually achieved by personal judgment. Art is such a subjective medium in itself that we hardly ever are told by others that we have failed. Whether a certain work of art was ‘effective’ or ‘good’ to one person or another is completely a matter of opinion. Most of the time when we experience failure as artists, it is because we have not met our own expectations. We have a standard for what our work should be, and when that standard is not met in our eyes, even if others may think us brilliant, we describe it as failure.
Observation number two, failure can, and should be repeated. Because as the old saying goes, ‘it’s not failure, it’s unfinished success”. We cannot expect to only fail once, learn from it, and always achieve success the second time around. The artist’s whole life consists of learning from failures and growing with each wrong step.
Now, before I depress you too much, here is observation number three, or I guess conclusion number one. If we are to say that failure is just unfinished success, and that every failure is just a step toward that success, then it seems that we artists have a different word for failure altogether. We call it process. Whether we view our latest work in the light of success or failure, the silver lining is, that it is all part of the growing artistic process.
Which pushes right on to observation number four. Although I suppose I can’t call it that, because it was someone else’s observation so I guess I’ll have to call these next two quotes discoveries one and two.
Discovery one: “I’d rather make a mistake by something new and it not working than not stepping out at all.” Cameron Strang, CEO of RELEVANT.
Discovery two: “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” Sir Ken Robinson, creative and cultural education leader, Great Britian.
These two men have the right idea when it comes to failure, and if I were to dare to add one more thing myself, it would be this…
Failure as an artist, whether taken lightly, harshly, positively, negatively, emotionally, physically, spiritually, or whatever it may be, failure will never be what defines us. Because the Christian artist knows that at the end of the day, it is not his work which defines him Rather, he finds his identity in the eyes of God, where he is loved, cherished, supported, and at home.
Go ahead, screw up.
-jon
Observation number two, failure can, and should be repeated. Because as the old saying goes, ‘it’s not failure, it’s unfinished success”. We cannot expect to only fail once, learn from it, and always achieve success the second time around. The artist’s whole life consists of learning from failures and growing with each wrong step.
Now, before I depress you too much, here is observation number three, or I guess conclusion number one. If we are to say that failure is just unfinished success, and that every failure is just a step toward that success, then it seems that we artists have a different word for failure altogether. We call it process. Whether we view our latest work in the light of success or failure, the silver lining is, that it is all part of the growing artistic process.
Which pushes right on to observation number four. Although I suppose I can’t call it that, because it was someone else’s observation so I guess I’ll have to call these next two quotes discoveries one and two.
Discovery one: “I’d rather make a mistake by something new and it not working than not stepping out at all.” Cameron Strang, CEO of RELEVANT.
Discovery two: “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” Sir Ken Robinson, creative and cultural education leader, Great Britian.
These two men have the right idea when it comes to failure, and if I were to dare to add one more thing myself, it would be this…
Failure as an artist, whether taken lightly, harshly, positively, negatively, emotionally, physically, spiritually, or whatever it may be, failure will never be what defines us. Because the Christian artist knows that at the end of the day, it is not his work which defines him Rather, he finds his identity in the eyes of God, where he is loved, cherished, supported, and at home.
Go ahead, screw up.
-jon
