Starting With a Sketch

Abandoned potential.

Maybe the artist didn't have the guts to see it through. Maybe she lost the vision for the work. Maybe he forgot what he was trying to say. Maybe the work was never supposed to be finished. 

Some work is just a part of a discovery process. You work on something to learn. The seeds of your next idea are born in your incomplete works, drafts and sketches. 

The false starts, incompletes drafts and demos are a valuable part of the process as long as they don't become the entire process.  Sometimes it is cool to share the drafts...they may inspire someone else to pick up on the work. 

The problem is when you draft and never complete. And you cop out with some bullshit story about a creative choice to leave the work where it is. Don't kid yourself. What really happened is the work presented a problem that you weren't ready to work through. And you abandoned it. 

So this playlist contains a few rough cuts, drafts, and ideas that are not completely realized as well as a few polished pieces.  In any case, I am familiar with most of the artists, I know they can finish work. 

Finishing is a habit and a skill I have to continue to work on.

It is easy to hide behind a work in progress and derive pleasure from imagining what can become of it. It is easy to get lulled into a sense of satisfaction by potential. 

The sense of the possible in your work can fuel your motivation, but it can also be a seductive distraction that keeps you away from the hard work of bringing the work to the world. The emotional payoff of envision something as done is remarkably similar to actually getting it done. 

The spark of excitement that comes when an idea first hits the page, the screen, the canvas is only a clue that you might be on to something.

Congratulations. Now let's see what you can do with it.