Thinking about trying new things.
I've embarked on a rather ambitious garden this year, trying to succession plant plus starting most things from seed. To clarify, I try to start my tomatoes/peppers/eggplant every year, but THIS year I'm adding all greens, onions, flowers, herbs, beets, radish...basically anything that isn't a root crop or doesn't like being transplanted (though I WILL be trying some melons and cucumbers just to see) to my seeding roster. And my brain is in overdrive. What if I don't time it right? What if I have too much? (hahahaha. like that is EVER a problem!) What if I have too little? (Always! I am scarcity phobic) What if? What if? What if?
And I realized that this state of mind is often present in my art practice as well when I'm trying something new. To clarify, again, this is NOT a problem when I'm in an experimentation "Let's See Where THIS Goes?!" mindset. But after I've already started a piece and decide, "Hey! What if I..."? This usually ends up with less than stellar results.
And I think that this raises its head, but don't quote me on this, due to a lack of direction.
Case in point. I've been working on this particular piece for weeks now. I have scraped it back to the bare board no less than three times. And it's starting to make me angry. Never a good place to be when creating something! (like making bread. but I digress.)
I mostly know where a piece is headed from the start. Oh! Sure, sometimes things/ideas/problems/solutions come up on the fly and have to be dealt with but for the most part I have the end result clear in my head.
When experimenting and trying new things, by its very nature, the end result can't be known. Which is great. NOT however when a piece is already started. It creates a very muddy path. Like starting with a palette of 3 colours then continually adding new colours as you go along, you're gonna end up with a muddy mess!
And so it's been with this piece. I knew I wanted to use the vintage paint box as the container. I knew it would be an homage to my mother. And that's pretty much all I knew. I've added transfers and colours and more transfers and scraped it back and started again, transfer upon transfer... it's just a big ol' muddy mess!
I'm learning ...in planning a garden as well as my art practice... that sometimes taking a deep breath and THINKING/planning for the next step is a much better way of moving forward than blasting ahead and getting my brain in a big knot. And to leave the experiments to their own time where RESULTS are not necessary.
Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?!