Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Just trying it... Sometimes that's all it takes.

In my last post regarding being Stuck at the Stems I couldn't decide whether I wanted to move the stems of the poppies around a bit or leave them as they were.  I was feeling pretty frustrated.  I wasn't angry I was just wanting to keep the creativity moving (or so I thought), but now I realize sometimes in order to move forward sometimes I have to move backwards.

Thankfully, I was away from them for a couple of days and coming back to them gave me a fresh perspective and a little internal movement.

I decided I could move the stems around and see whether I like them and if not.  If I don't like them, no harm done, I just put them back like they were to the best of my ability.  

Now, my question to myself is, why didn't I think of this when I was in the moment rather than having to stew over it for days.  

BEFORE

Who would have thought it could be so simple?  Yet, here I was holding onto what I had already done. How often do we do this in life?  

I often put things off because I don't like to back track.  Always moving forward is my "motto", but then... moments like this help me remember we often have to go back to the beginning to figure out how to break patterns that slow us down in order to keep the momentum to grow and change.

AFTER

Naturally, the placement of the stems is only a little different from the original stems, but the beauty is that the simple of act of trying it out and letting go of my attachment to the work I had already done and the willingness to change when it came time to do so.

And best of all... I like them better.  Especially with a new perspective.

Just stepping out and trying it.  Sometimes, that's all it takes!

Until tomorrow! 

Be well!

2 comments:

  1. Yes, much better stems, more flow-y!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So cool when you share your creative process. When I was in college, Sally Mann the photographer came to visit and it has always made an impression on me how generous she was in sharing her creative process. I think as artists, it can be hard to articulate sometimes. She showed us this photo:
    http://www.pbs.org/art21/slideshow/artists/m/mann-photo-003.jpg
    Then she showed us several more iterations of the same photo...small small nuances in between but just that feeling of it being "not quite right" yet. She was shooting with a camera that had 8X10 negatives so it was kind of a big deal to keep setting it up, developing the print...setting it up again, etc. The dedication part of art-making.Thanks again for putting it out there.
    appreciatively,
    Dana

    ReplyDelete