Notes on Making Art

I found this in my inbox the other day (it’s from a list I subscribe to so it was supposed to be there) the Scarlet Letters: Notes on Making Art

And read it and found I was still thinking about some of it days later. Especially the second item on the list.

“Do NOT mix generating and editing. When you’re making a piece, don’t stop and get judgmental half-way through. If it’s a piece of crap, get that piece of crap out of your system — don’t try to fix it mid-flow. Finish it and move on.”

Number Eight is relevant as well.
“Work fast. Creativity is exciting. If you’re not judging while you’re making, then you can just throw things together as fast as your mind can move. You’re smart; if you don’t like what you’ve made, you’ll know immediately. You might not know what to do about the problem you perceive… Don’t “think”, standing there cogitating — try things. If your hands are in motion, you can be generating new permutations. The one that you want to pick will come out on its own time.”

I think that I like some of this because it allows for the possibilty of a miss, not everything is a winner. There is a line in there about “Get through the first 50 failures quickly”. Not a bad motto and possibly a great album title.

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