never finished

It is as the term comes to its resolution with final paperwork due and a body of work to complete, that my anticipation of what I wanted to accomplish become a long term laundry list of things to do. It feels like something I read on a blog called accidental creative by Todd Henry.

“It will never be good enough. It will never cease, and there will always be more to do . . . Because the work of art is never finished. As long as there are patterns to form, as long as there is meaning to discern, as long as there are realities to reveal, the mind will continue trying to do what it does. . . I am an unfinished sentence. But if we approach our days with possibility and hope we can see not all that is left undone, but all that is left to do. . . We need to see what is unfinished as a gift to be unpacked rather than a burden to be born.” Todd Henry http://accidentalcreative.com/blog/2009/03/16/never-finished/

As a perfectionist and as a goal-oriented person these words resonate with me. For the past decade I have become aware of my need to see my art and my life as an ever-evolving process. Nothing in my life is finished, completed, or fixed. My past, present, and future are all one continuum, just as my photographs speak to and inform my objects, as one body of work supports another.

So I refocus on being in the creative process and move forward.

During the past month I have worked on and hopefully completed all my research papers, met with my mentor Marie Navarre, had final critiques, and put up a show of some of my new body of work bind. This term I have evolved from taking images of my family members, to creating three-dimensional art to express my childhood memories. While working I have found these new materials and the process of creating these objects more time consuming than I had anticipated. Despite my goal oriented expectations and desire to have more accomplished I will continue to add build this body of work until our June residency.