anti-perfectionism | Tom Harold

Here you can see the roll out, the exit for the sculpture. It turned out nicely, but there was plenty of tweaking involved in the area immediately below the final spiral. I spent a good long time getting that to work properly. This was another one of those details that ended up absorbing far more hours than you’d think it would or should. This is exactly the sort of thing that keeps people from building these doohickeys. It’s the little stuff that’s most challenging for the simple fact that it’s nit-picky and slow. Fortunately, I thrive on that sort of attention to detail. The real challenge for me is to be okay with it not being 100% perfect, something which no human is capable of, but which I, for some reason, think I should be able to do. This thing is working well, and I’m going to be happy with that. Onward! Completion awaits!

From time to time I’ve tossed up pics on the ol’ blogwall here to see how they stick. Mainly they’ve been illustrative in nature, and I guess that’s probably due in large part to the fact that I got a degree in Journalism and spent a good deal of my time learning how to create pictures that tell a story.

Sometimes, however, you just want a picture that makes a statement all its own. I have no idea if I possess an ability in that regard, but I still take a stab at it, but I’ve not often posted those results up here on thatstom. I suppose largely that’s due to the fact that I’m a perfectionist, and usually look at them and go, “Uh…suck!” The enemy of the creative spirit is perfectionism, and I’m a victim of it as much as anyone else out there, and on occasion far more than is healthy. Perfectionism is responsible for that voice that says, “Nah, you suck. That sucks. You’re not good enough. You might be good, but other people are better. People will laugh at this stuff. Who are you to think that you might even possibly be capable of doing something decent. You’re wasting your time!”

Perfectionism, it’s one of the most powerful anti-creation forces in the universe. It’s what makes us not start projects, or start projects but never finish them. (Hey, if you never finish something, it’ll never be imperfect, right? What a great excuse not to do something!) I have often fallen victim to perfectionism, and for years I thought it was actually a good thing, that it helped me create stuff that was very exacting and of good quality. I didn’t realize how often, by comparison, it kept me from trying new things I really wanted to try, from experiencing the joy of a completed work, or of basking in some justly-deserved praise. Perfectionism kept me from creating, and, as such, kept me from the very healthy practice of being myself! This, in turn, creates all kinds of other unpleasant negative feelings. Overall the whole thing’s just a bad deal, and I’m pretty much done with living my life being governed by negative feelings such as those.

Taking action is an outstanding way of dealing a blow to the negativity of perfectionism. Me not sharing some of my photos? Not a good thing. A very simple way for me to take action is just to put a few of them up here without worrying if they’re perfect or not. I achieved a massive victory this evening of simply flipping through a few photos from the past couple of years and picking whatever ones caught my eye without obsessing (too much!) over how fantasti-wondeful they were. And now I’m putting them up here for all of you, my Awesome Readers/Viewers, to take a gander at.

The following are just a few random images that seemed to at least sort of show some promise. Critique, lambaste, judge, wrinkle your nose, smile, roll your eyes, whatever strikes your fancy. Hopefully there is a little enjoyment to be had from them. I don’t know where any of this work is headed, I just know that I’m supposed to be doing it. If I’m not sharing it, then it’s not doing me any good. I’m my own worst critic, and it’s a good idea to get some feedback on occasion, because sometimes I may be wrong about me. Now enjoy, and feed back!