instant art show #2

instant art show #2: the postmortem report

the objective of the week * what went well * what was challenging * what I learned

The objective of the week

This week’s goal was to avoid overwhelm by deciding what to spend time on and what to let go.

I’m sure there are many artists out there who would consider themselves perfectionists, and I definitely fall into that category. I frequently get preoccupied with what I call “the last five percent”, where something is just about finished, just about ready, but there’s that last little bit that drives me crazy because it is not quite done, or it should be fancier, or it could be better.

I’ll admit that there are certain times when the last five percent is really important, and not taking care of it can get you into trouble. Like in portrait painting. Or accounting. Or brain surgery.

Really, most of the time, the last five percent really doesn’t matter that much. But that last five percent can be a tricky thing too, because it can be so tempting to use it as an excuse to stall or procrastinate when I’m nervous about moving forward or putting my work out there. Without a deadline, my last five percent can be infinitely expanded in the hopes that someday soon, I’ll somehow be smarter or more qualified or finally able to finish something perfectly, and the idea that “done is better than perfect” becomes nothing more than a blip in the rearview mirror.

So that’s one of the clever personal growth tricks that I’m playing on myself with this year’s project. The Instant Art Show is basically an ongoing series of rolling deadlines that give me opportunities to choose over and over again: do I spend that extra time fussing with the last five percent, or do I call it good enough and move on? I’m hoping that with practice, I’ll develop the skills of prioritizing, being decisive, and understanding where my time and energy are best spent. Every week, I’ll get more of those valuable practice opportunities to choose, and my goal this week has been to be mindful of where those choices are able to made, and to be deliberate about making good ones in the context of everything else that needs to be done.

 What went well

I was pleased with the energy of this week’s video, and I really enjoyed collaborating with my studio mate Alex Brehmer for this week’s filming! I discovered that I really liked incorporating another artist into the process. It helps me act more like myself on camera to be able to create and laugh and be talking about art in an unscripted way. (During the filming session, we got the very silly idea that it would be funny during a video about blind contour drawing to be drawing with blindfolds on. Did you catch that little bit of footage in the video?) I’m looking forward to bringing other artists into the videos as often as I can in the weeks to follow.

What was challenging

I was really excited about this week’s live show, having moved the date from Sunday to Friday in the hopes of it being more accessible to the community, but a mob scene was unfortunately not in the cards this week. Yes, every artist fears the empty gallery and worries about how to bring people in to see the artwork, and sometimes it just doesn’t work out the way we’ve hoped. I’d sent out the announcement in my newsletter and put the show on Instagram; but my crucial error was neglecting to consider the other things going on in my arts community. The Medford Artwalk takes place on the third Friday of every month, but I’d been too busy to consider it. If I had paid attention to that important detail, I could have seen some great artwork on Friday in Medford, and then had my show on Saturday on Ashland.

What I learned

While my fragile little ego would love to have a jam-packed show every single week, I feel like it was actually a much more valuable learning experience to have had this kind of turnout problem this early in my year of shows. As I said above, I learned that I need to be more conscious of what’s happening in my community, since I have the flexibility of creating my own show schedule.

I also feel good about putting my best foot forward: I put a lot of energy into curating my studio space; I was proud of the work I presented and the ideas I put forward; and I felt like I made really nice connections with the people that did come out to see my work and shared friendly commentary with me online. And it helps that this is a project where the art and ideas are online too, so the in-person show is not the only place people can ever see a particular week’s set of work. Most importantly, I’m finding that I’m not too discouraged by this small setback. I learned the lesson I needed, which was to pay attention to what’s happening in my community and be flexible; I also know that there are other ways I can get the word out about my shows, and that some weeks are going to be better than others. So as corny as it sounds, I’m giving myself credit for just showing up and doing my best.

 As always, much room for improvement and lots of new things to learn. Thanks so much for reading!