"Second Chances"

     I read a quote by Scott Adams recently.  It goes like this: Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

     I don't know whether he was talking about art, itself, or life, in general.  But as an artist, I'll view it from the art perspective. I asked myself how many pieces of art I've made that I thought were mistakes. There were several!  And, because of the cost of the materials, I've kept those mistakes with the intent of one day reworking them with the hopes of ending up with something I feel good about. I figured, sometimes I need to walk away from a piece I'm creating, so that when I return to it I have a fresh perspective.  This always works, and I'm able to craft something worthy of keeping, something even good enough to sell.

     In fact, I recently took a canvas that was a "mistake", one that had been sitting off to the side for over a year, and told myself I was going to "fix" it.  And I did!  I'd looked up the submission themes for one of my favorite art magazines, Somerset Studio.  One of the choices interested me and I immediately pictured the end result of my submission.  But, what canvas would I use?  Ah-ha!  That "mistake" that was sitting off to the side, just waiting for some attention!

     Long story short, I took that canvas and reworked it to the point that I felt really good about it.  Next day, I was standing in line at the Post Office, waiting to send it off to Somerset Studio!  I have no idea whether they will like it as much as I do, but it felt really good to take a mistake and turn it into a work of art!