Letting Your Art Be

I’ve made my share of bad art.  Written bad stories.  Sung the wrong notes more than once.

In my more charitable moments I’ve thought of Art as a very forgiving instructor who would nod at my stumbling attempts and say, “You’re getting better.”

Anymore, I don’t believe Art is forgiving at all.  Of anything.  I’ve come to understand that, as far as Art is concerned, there’s nothing to forgive.

Does Art Care that I’m Getting Better?

Honestly, I don’t think it even notices.

I notice.  And where your art is concerned, you notice.  But the Art?  It just wants to be made.

Yes, yes, we want to create good stuff.  We want to be satisfied with our efforts.  But our satisfaction will ebb and flow.  Just as our discerning eye will love some of what we do and dismiss some as mediocre.  We need to remember that our judgment — as well as our satisfaction — belongs to us.  Neither is a quality of the art itself.

Your Art Just Wants to Be Made

I’ve shown what I considered my best work and received a lukewarm reception. I’ve gotten compliments on work I thought was less than great.  Whose judgment is to be trusted?

I’ve revisited work that didn’t satisfy me at the time it was created, only to find it had somehow improved with age.  (It’s nice when that happens, not so nice when it goes in the other direction. Which it sometimes does. C’est la vie.)

You can’t know how your work will be experienced by others — or even by yourself — because art exists in a fluid relationship.  It’s experienced in a unique way by each person who engages with it, and that experience, that relationship, changes over time.

So how do you know if your work is good or not?

It’s Not Your Job to Know.

It’s your job to meet up for a playdate with your artful heart, and see what happens.  Know that you’re going to make some bad art.  You’re going to have your moments, your days, your frustrations, your maddening sessions when you can’t seem to create anything of any quality at all.  You’re also going to make some awesome stuff.  And guess what.

Art doesn’t care.

It just wants to be made.   So let it be.