Artist Statement

“Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to do your best.

Perfectionism is the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect, and act perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment and shame. It’s a shield. It’s a 20 ton shield we lug around thinking it will protect us when, in fact, it’s the thing that’s really preventing us from taking flight”.

–Brene Brown

During the global pandemic, I find myself falling into rhythm of not being able to complete, or even start, many different projects. I do not want to start the process because I want the idea to be perfect before I begin. I sit and wait for the perfect idea to come along, instead of actively pursuing it. The creative process for me entails lots of ideas that do not meet my expectations until finally arriving on a concept that effectively communicates my message. The only way to achieve these concepts is through rigorous, at times tedious, rounds of trial and error. It is only through this process that work I am proud of can be achieved. Procrastination comes in to play when I do not want to go through in-depth explorations and instead, culminate a great idea without engaging in the creative process (taking the easy route and pushing off the hard work).

By waiting for the perfect idea, it is challenging to start new projects. More often than not, it is more comfortable to not start, and just let that creative idea stay in my head. I know that if I start developing the initial idea visually, it would not look exactly the same as what was in my head. As many creative individuals I also share the mindset of validating only perfectly executed projects and having the confidence of only sharing them with the public. But that is not a productive or realistic approach, the only real path towards a quality idea, is through quantity of ideas.

Every time a project is finished through constructive feedback potential for growth and advancements increases. It is a challenging path, and one that needs to be taken, especially if you as a creative individual end up having a hard time staying committed to a single project. It comes as self-realization the importance of letting go of perfectionism and freely diving into diverse creative processes and applying oneself to more than one project till completion.

Another prime consideration relates to realizing the importance of overcoming procrastination. When we spend time just passively, instead of actively, thinking about our ideas procrastination emerges under the weight of perfectionism. By passively thinking we place ourselves into a “safe” space shielding us from the potential of failure. Instead, we need to embrace failure, it is inevitable, and a key component of progressive success. So instead of sitting and thinking about how I will plan my projects out to minimize failure I remind myself that I need to start early, so I can fail early, and not waste valuable time thinking about how to create the perfect idea.

I want this work to serve as a reminder that waiting for the perfect idea to come along before starting a project, hobby or anything in life, is not productive and that perfectionism is just one of the many masks that procrastination can wear.