Studio Notes: Accepting Failure
And moving on
In the past several months I’ve been juggling so many things, including sickness, busyness and unexpected events, that my art practice had unfortunately taken the back seat for a while. I didn’t feel like writing posts or meaningfully showing up online either, so this was yet another area where I felt like failing. I have been trying to keep up with my projects and ideas, especially with the 100 days project, but it just proved unsustainable. After a while I realized that I need to let go, keep hoping that the creative spark will soon come back and just move on.
100 days project 2026
This year I have intentionally designed a process for the project that is very easy to follow and takes under 5 minutes daily. All of the pieces started as blind continuous line drawings, but I allowed myself to tweak and adjust them for a more finished look. The more pieces I made, the more I could let go of perfection, the less I would tweak and adjust them after the initial blind contour.
However, I still skipped about the third of the project. For some time I thought I’ll just make up for the skipped days after the official end date of the project, but I realized that it is just one more way of trying to escape the feeling of “failure”. Even though I don’t have 100 portraits, I still have a lovely collection and learned so much from the process.
It is time to for new ideas and projects!
Moving on
One of the ways I usually get back into flow is to make handmade books, so this is what I did this time too. I grabbed some materials and made a simple small mixed media sketchbook. I also made a little handwritten note for my inspiration board with ideas and projects I have on my mind - I want to create some new work on canvas, experiment with collage more, and focus on drawing.
I also want to have fun and focus on simple creative projects just like this handmade book. Summer is usually a productive season for me as it is semester break, but this year has proven to be a difficult one (already), so I am letting go of expectations - the goal is to let ideas flow, create together with other people, focus on enjoying the process and inviting more creativity back to my life.
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Until next time!
Lisa
Some may say that giving up is not a failure but accepting that we can failure is so important, in my opinion. It takes courage to understand and accept that sometimes letting go projects is the right step. We are all made of wins and failures.
I hope Summer can treat your better dear Lisa and you may feel the creative spark, enjoy and play! Like David Hockney said “If you are not playful, you are not alive.” 💚
P.S.- your handmade sketchbooks are always great!
Recently I failed at not being behind on an important translation project; I am failing at keeping up with all the work the garden needs; I am failing to make more pieces to fill the kiln and I failing to read everything I want to read… actually I could probably list a few more things but the above stand out. Dwelling on them and making myself feel bad only makes everything worse.
I want write I feel better after writing that but that’s not really true 😃
Basically, I want to say yes, we indeed need to be able to accept we will fail at some things, and move on. There are too many things waiting round the corner for us to succeed at 😜
Thank you, Lisa, for sharing this and here’s to having fun with our art and enjoying the process!