Stepping Through the Door: Perfection or Adventure?

"The Yellow Door" - Image c 2005 Lynda Lehmann

Alyson B. Stanfield in her recent post, "Deep Thought Thursday: Perfection and the artist" in ArtBiZ Blog, addresses the idea of perfection in art.

http://www.artbizblog.com/2007/12/deep-thought--1.html

My response to her post is that I gave up the idea of "perfection" long ago, both in my art and in my housekeeping!

For me, making art is an ongoing and infinite experience, and "perfection" implies stasis or an "end point," as in the idea of a fixed and specific goal. To me, art is neither. Making art is a dynamic and joyous experience, a process of discovery in which passion is balanced with restraint, to create something that didn't exist before. Take the discovery out of it, and you might as well be folding laundry!

Every work, whether it be painting, writing, or music, can be taken in a thousand directions. So nothing can really be called "finished," let alone "perfect." Living is not absolute; neither is making art.

Thanks, Alyson, for stimulating my thinking on this!

How do you, my blogging friends, experience your own creativity? Do you equate it with some pinnacle of achievement or finite definition of perfection, or do you look forward to stepping through the door into an adventure, and welcome the uncertainty that accompanies artistic exploration?

If you would like to see more of my Italy shots, please visit my primary site at www.lyndalehmann.com. Image and text c Lynda Lehmann.