OK, it happened again. I was working on a new idea, a macrame flower, “exploring the possibilities and potential of the materials” (i.e. nylon cord and beads) and I got to a turning point (several hours of tedious work later) when I had to make an important decision. The decision was - “Do I continue pouring more time and energy into this piece or do I stop now and add yet another half finished thing to my shoebox?” I didn’t want all the hours I’d already spent on this thing to go to waste, but as it progressed with only so-so results, I kept thinking, this is tedious, this is no fun, this is taking forever. Joseph Campbell advised us to “follow your bliss”, and it was very clear to me that this was not my bliss! So I tossed it into the black hole (my shoebox of no return) and I’m happier now because I’m freed up to work on something else. Something that I can feel good about, maybe even get excited about.Or maybe to just sit on my porch and stare off into space......
I like to think that there are no such things as“failures” in art and that I learn something valuable from all of those partially finished thingees that I’ve made over the years. Well maybe I’ve learned a few things that I just can’t remember at the moment. But today my lesson seems to be that life is short, and macrame is very long, so I’ll quit working on stuff that doesn’t make me happy and only make things that do make me happy.
