Accidental Visit to an Art Exhibition
When I headed out for a walk yesterday, I did not expect this-
I headed out for a walk at about 5 p.m. so I could watch the sunset at 6.
On the way, I came across a small poster on a wall railing: Art for Life exhibition. It was on the second floor of an old building.
I am a huge fan of art. And I was in no hurry either. So I ventured inside.
It had many different types of art: all handmade, original, and one-of-a-kind.
Traditional textiles from different parts of India. Handwoven and hand-painted fabrics. Costume jewellery. Small painted masks and large hand-sculpted ones. Vintage magnifying glass. Madhubani painting on wooden utensils and hand fans. Wooden spoons and folks with carvings on the handle. Nostalgic doodling on table mats. Cards and greeting tags. Rural showpieces. Glass paintings. Massive wall hangings with ancient art forms. Miniature ink work on papyrus. Bronze sculptures.
Time flew by.
I missed the sunset. But I felt inspired to create. I got lost in each work of art. Each piece was a portal to a different era.
I love creating, documenting things, and making gifts. It is why I write, read, document my experiences and learnings, paint, learn, and journal.
One thing I frequently struggle with is getting started or taking action. I, somehow, think myself out of doing things before I even begin.
You’ve probably experienced this at some point in your life. Generally, the reason for this is
- Striving for perfection
- Fear of failure
1/ How to deal with perfectionism?
Looking at all the art, taught me an invaluable lesson.
You don’t need to be perfect in everything that you do. It makes you procrastinate and sucks the pleasure out of doing it.
The duty of art is to make you feel- to tell a story, make you think and to be a portal to another world.
Art isn’t supposed to be perfect. Because what is perfect?
Often, what stops us from creating is worry. We’re worried we’re not good enough. For instance, someone has fantastic stories to tell. But, they’re afraid of sharing them. Why? They think their English is not good enough.
But the thing is- people want to hear your stories. People are nice and kind and forgiving. They don’t care about your grammatical mistakes. They want to know you and listen to your story.
It’s why I found myself staring at the sculptures and paintings. It’s why the doodling on table mats was nostalgic. They might not be appealing to everyone. But it evoked emotions within me.
“If it is art, it is not for all, and if it is for all, it is not art.”
― Arnold Schoenberg
A writer’s biggest mistake is overediting. I’ve made this mistake several times. Overediting does more harm than good. It removes your personality from your writing. And makes your writing bland.
Artists do this too. They want to make the perfect piece of art. So they stick with what’s tried and tested. Or they procrastinate or worse, never try.
Beginners struggle with this a lot. But you need to realize
- Your first painting will be bad.
- Your first article will be bad.
- Your first podcast will be bad.
- Your first anything will be bad.
Stop comparing your day 10 with someone’s day 300. Focus on you. Because at the end of the day, it’s You vs. You.
2/ Fear of failure?
Fear of failure leads to procrastination.
Let me tell you what I tell myself-
Why do you think you might fail?
Because it is new to you, it’s unfamiliar or uncomfortable.
And it’s something you genuinely want to do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be so afraid of failing.
What if you do fail?
Nothing will happen. You’ll learn.
But there is another possibility-
You don’t fail. You succeed. And it turns out to be better than you imagined. Then you’ll only be glad you started. You had faith in yourself and you gave it a go.
And if you’re still scared, think of it like an experiment. Something you’re trying out and experimenting with like a scientist. (Shout out to Ali Abdaal for introducing me to this way of thinking. Check out his videos and newsletter.)
I hope this encourages you to create stuff- paint, write, make videos, or anything you like. If you enjoyed reading this article, leave a clap and follow me on Medium. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
I’m currently reading the book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People.’ I applied what I learned for 1 day and already saw some fantastic results. Give it a read if you haven’t already.
PS- I want to start a newsletter where I share my learnings from a book I’m reading, interesting stuff I came across- podcasts/ blogs/ videos (learning, creativity and self-improvement oriented), and some other stuff. It’s a rough idea but what else would you be interested in?
Thank you for reading :)
