Perfection is an illusion. We strive for perfection and it is a noble goal, but isn’t imperfection part of the human condition, and so unavoidable? We are so ready to judge ourselves harshly when we don’t meet our highest expectation. Yet often there is more value in the journey then there is in the goal.
In art, we create the illusion of perfection. We finesse and finagle the arrangement of elements until everything looks evenly spaced and perfectly aligned, but in the end, we make it so that the imperfections are really unnoticeable.
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| A large pot in progress |
I worked once in the company of Marva Jolly who watched as I smoothed every wrinkle and crevasse out of a form and fussed over it to make sure it was perfectly symmetrical. After working a great while, she looked at my smooth surface and said, “You just took the character out of it.” She also observed how hard I worked to make everything so perfect. She noted that one small unexpected happening could take that perfection away. She said it was better to embrace the imperfect and make that part of the art.
This is a lesson I keep in mind when I work. I strive for perfection, but embrace the character of the imperfect and treasure the random, knowing a happy accident may be around the corner.