“One who makes no mistakes makes nothing.” – Giacomo Casanova

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The blank slate is one of the scariest things an artist faces. Every time I create something new, I can’t help but feel a little worried.

I am worried that my work won’t be good enough. I am worried that people won’t like it. I worry that people will criticize it.

These are mostly irrational fears. I know that. But that doesn’t mean my mind is immune from having these thoughts.

One of the causes of these fears is the perfection curse. As artists, there is always something we can nitpick about our work. We are our own worst enemies.

We want to create art that meets our own lofty expectations. This means, we tweak a work to death. We want to get it just right before we let it out into the world. Although this may seem admirable, it often causes us to sit on certain pieces for far too long.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. Nothing is perfect. You can try all you want, but you will never attain perfection. Let go of the notion that your work should be free of mistakes. Embrace the mistakes instead.

You need to know when something is good enough. I love the idea of iteration. Release your work and get feedback from it. Learn from your mistakes, and improve upon them.

If you are afraid to make work without mistakes, you will never make anything.

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