Walking on Eggshells by Sandy Skogland, Cibachrome, 48 1/8 x 60 ¼”, 1997
If you repeat something again and again, two things can happen to the results you get:
either you get better and better at doing the thing you’re repeating until it’s deeply ingrained in your mind – a state of mastery, if you like, where your actions are almost ‘second nature’, automatic or habitual and the result is nearer and nearer to ‘perfection‘ or bliss…
…or, you tire of the task, lose your concentration, your direction or your motivation and the results get worse, more haphazard and more ‘sloppy’, spiraling away from achieving mastery of anything except the art of self-sabotage (but that’s another story for a different post!).
No matter what the reason for losing it in the first place, getting back your concentration, your direction and your motivation are, in my mind, key factors in regaining the sense of being in the upward spiral towards bliss rather than the downward one away from it.
With painting or making artwork, I’ve lost all three – concentration, direction and motivation – at various times in my life – repeatedly (ha ha). But as David, my partner says, “7 times down, 8 times up”.
So, here I go again, persevering.
Where to start?
With inspiration – I love this image of eggs, women and snakes – playful, quirky energy, sharp observation, an element of (sinister) fantasy, and… repetition.
With gratitude – thanks David, for creating this beautiful site/space for me to play, explore, show, create, discuss, reflect and connect. I love it! gracias xx
With repetition – don’t wait to come up with something new or a clean slate or any other block that might let me off my own creative ‘perfection’ hook – just start! – with mark-making, cutting and sticking, painting – all things I’ve done hundreds of times before – and repeat – and repeat – and repeat….
So let go. Break a few eggs – remember it’ll be sloppy for a while – and then watch the journey unfold, one little repeating step at a time…