There is a phenomenon known as “the artist’s curse”–a state of perception in an artist of their own work as inferior and somehow lacking. \u00a0 It is a virus of self-doubt\u00a0instilled by\u00a0the ever-present voice of the inner critic who notes\u00a0with a jaundiced and magnifying eye only the flaws, imperfections and shortcomings in the execution of a piece of work. \u00a0The inner critic measures the latest attempt against past successes, other artists master works, or impossibly high aspirations. \u00a0It can lead an artist to destroy perfectly wonderful pieces of their labor in a pique\u00a0of self loathing\u00a0and doubt. \u00a0I think it must be something like the\u00a0pathological state of\u00a0postpartum depression in a\u00a0mother who has delivered a child.<\/p>\n
To combat this disease I believe it’s\u00a0always best, as an artist, when\u00a0completing a fresh work to pause, wait a while and put the voice of the inner critic on “mute.”\u00a0 To let a painting “rest” for a time. \u00a0To avoid the temptation of tweaking and making “little fixes” here and there. \u00a0To avoid the nagging thought that, “if only I do this…or that…to this painting, it will be better.” \u00a0The state of final<\/em> “finish” is arbitrary and elusive for each work and it is in this hyper-critical state of emotional attachment\u00a0as we near the culmination of a painting that\u00a0we can succumb\u00a0to excessively\u00a0analytical and even pathologically delusional perceptions of\u00a0our own work. \u00a0It is the time when we most risk the fault\u00a0of “over working” our piece. \u00a0Many a fine painting is ruined\u00a0in the\u00a0finish–most often by acting upon the infected perception of the inner critic. \u00a0Ironically, it is this\u00a0sycophantic voice that prods us to “fix” which\u00a0leads us to ruin\u00a0and thereby causes us to hate and even destroy the works that somehow do not live up to our expectation.<\/p>\n It’s better to put the brush down and leave a canvas\u00a0in a semi-finished state that conveys some truth, than to fastidiously pick at little details until the spontaneity,\u00a0mystery and truth\u00a0have\u00a0been thoroughly abused. \u00a0By\u00a0allowing the mind time to rest and detach from the passion of the moment–by muting\u00a0the inner critic, we may return to comprehend with fresh, unprejudiced\u00a0eyes, the beauty we’ve been fortunate enough to transmit and share with the world.<\/p>\n We may come to love our work as others do.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is a phenomenon known as “the artist’s curse”–a state of perception in an artist of their own work as inferior and somehow lacking. \u00a0 It is a virus of self-doubt\u00a0instilled by\u00a0the ever-present voice of the inner critic who notes\u00a0with a jaundiced and magnifying eye only the flaws, imperfections and shortcomings in the execution of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[67,11],"tags":[140,62,122],"class_list":["post-1421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-instructional","category-ideas","tag-instructional","tag-musings","tag-process"],"yoast_head":"\n