Progress Check
Helllloooo my lovely souls, hope you’re all well!
In part I wanted to do some grand reveal to this piece, but since I preach about embracing progress, I thought it would be nice to touch base as I’m just over halfway.
A missing piece
I started this project to test my patience and delay gratification. Earlier this year I noticed how rushed and pressured I always feel to create “post worthy” visuals to keep up with demands of social media. In doing so I felt a bit uninspired. Was I creating with depth that challenged my skills and mentality or was I simply looking for quick fixes and a surge of gratification? Who can say, but I knew something was missing.
In my opinion, when no one is watching and you have nothing but yourself holding you accountable, that’s a true representation of who you are. I think that’s why I really value creatives that document long haul solo projects because it requires patience and perseverance that often nobody will see. There’s been points in this project where I think “ahk, if I stop people won’t know or care”…but I’ll know and I’ll care.
What started as one square a day, turned into painting multiple squares every few days because the reality is life happens. Either way, it’s forced me to be observant when I’m out and about, documenting different women and really encouraging me to step outside of my own little world and thoughts.
Uh oh! I made a boo-boo
It’s difficult to mend mistakes in the materials I’m using so I knew from the get-go I had to be meticulous. But I’m human. Sometimes I’m tired and sometimes birds fly into your window with a mighty force (more on that in a min), enough to make the hand slip.
For a start, I’m sitting on the paper to give me more control when painting small details, so my back is well and truly f***ed (excuse my language). Secondly some coffee drips have been made yet meticulously crafted into beautiful shades for skin. Thirdly the scale has fallen off the wagon, I’m not quite sure what happened but some squares are larger than others. Finally, in the event of a pigeon flying into my studio window we now have a very sizeable hairdo character and increased fear of birds. What’s notable is that had any of this happened in the past I would’ve torn it up and gone into a childish strop. Oddly enough, this time round I had a giggle and kept going.
The finish line is in sight…
…but not quite. There is still many a blank square to be painted (hundreds in fact), but it feels more manageable than when I started. I’ve realised that once it’s finished, it’s really only just begun. Sharing and turning it into something that you can get your hands on, or potential clients can visualise it for something, are probably the toughest parts of the whole process, particularly because I’m not very good at blowing my own trumpet (sales and pitch advice welcome).
I would love to hear your thoughts, suggestions and experiences of long haul projects…
For now, I’ll keep happily splodging away.
Until next time lovely souls,
