Art & Fear

"The myth of the extraordinary provides an excuse for an artist to quit trying to make art, and the excuse for a viewer to quit trying to understand it." 

"If you think good work is somehow synonymous with perfect work, you are headed for big trouble"

"Unfortunately, expectations based on illusion lead almost always to disillusionment"

I am a perfectionist.  I set expectations for myself that I cannot achieve.  This is the main struggle I have with art, I never feel my work is good enough.  Even if my art looks good to me, I constantly worry how the viewer will see it.  It is this self-consciousness, combined with impossible expectations that limits me. When I start working on a piece, I always have an idea in my head of what it will look like, and I strive to make it look like that picture.  However, I don't think I have ever made anything that looked exactly like the picture in my head, in fact my art rarely looks even remotely similar.  Even when I draw from observation, my artwork somehow takes a form of its own.