Fail Big

Much has been written about Sarah Blakely, the billionaire entrepreneur CEO of Spanx and her recipe for success. I recently saw an interview with her on PBS and one thing that really stood out was her relationship with her father, who would ask her each day, “So, what did you fail at today?” And if there were no failures, her father would be disappointed. Failure was not an outcome to be feared. The only poor outcome is a lack of trying. What the interview skips over was the level of support that she got from her father and the “co-conspiratorial” atmosphere that prevailed. He was behind her 100% no matter what.

The whole of the interview is available in text form from Forbes and there are many additional points in her success recipe, some of which are plain common sense and some of which I have heard in other contexts. She makes the point that fresh ideas are fragile, so don't tell anyone right away. So true! Work out those kinks first. People will throw shade and we all have a favorite Eeyore in our lives who will, unintentionally, knock us back a pace. Don't tell those people! Just do it! Go down that street and wave back at them from the summit.

As an artist, we are often reticent to put ourselves out there, to go further with a project, to take risks. And worse, each time we fail at a project or are rejected for a show, we take it to heart. What if our significant others were behind us like Sara's father was?

For me, personally, the last two weeks have been a trip down Failure Lane and I am celebrating it. I learned a lot! So let me tell you about my latest “Oops!” and why I love it. It started with my gallery, The Artists Corner and Gallery in Acton, MA,  announcing a show featuring our four footed friends and I have one, in residence, my favorite roommate and, though I don't usually do animal art, I am open to doing new things and thought I could give it a try.

I was aiming at “mysterious” rather than “cute” or “sentimental”. So I did sketches and eventually a linoleum cut.

Which I liked the first go of as far as it went. The concept was to give the blanket behind it some swirls, representing the dreams of the cat. The lower folds would be shaped like The Mother's Paws. Carving the design into the further folds of the afghan ended up looking somewhat busy and did not balance well against the lower bedspread, which really needs to be lighter (next state to be be worked). I like dramatic flat black areas and light areas that balance and play well.

The next problem I ran into, besides design issues (which I will fix in the next revision), were technical ones with the ink. I was using an ink I hadn't tried before (duh! what was I thinking?) and ran into problems from the get go.

First, I spread out too much and it was too goopy and then it was too dry and I didn't have the special extender that they want you to use because it won't mix with ANYTHING else but that. Cute. I have since learned (thank you Utube) that battleship type of linoleums need to be printed on an etching press to get that really nice solid black tone. Fortunately, I have an etching press! Unfortunately, the press is in the attic. On to the “To Do” list it goes.

I will keep working on this project, even though I will miss my show deadline, because the value of a piece of artwork is in my connection to it. I need to explore and resolve the issues that I started with this subject. There is something there. I don't necessarily know what it is, but I haven't found it and expressed it completely enough for me. I find that more and more, I have returned to subjects, especially ones that didn't work out, and re-worked them, explored them, done more with them than before. I have to find that thing I was looking for when I started them.

Another plus, with this project is that it has gotten me working on my lino/woodblock cutting again. I have a backlog of work that needs printing and has an audience and a fan base of people who really like my work! Success is relative.