SF: WABI SABI
click to enlargeNew art pieces for my walls I made last week. I had painted them without a frame in mind and once they were done I thought to change the flower pictures I had up and use the frames for these.
Once they were in the frame my inner critic jumped out right away yelling at me:" Noooo! Look at that you stupid, the images touch the frames and they are way too squashed and not even centered!! Oh how stupid that looks. And you want to call yourself an artist? Ha, the biggest joke in history! Now, take them down... come on...take...them...down!!!!!"
So I looked at the frame after listening to his hissed words and thought the opposite:" No, I won't take them down. I love them the way they are. Who says they are too tight anyway. It looks actually interesting that the image touches the frame slightly. The beauty of the 
click to enlarge imperfect. Who says everything in this world always has to be symmetrical and perfect. I will leave them as they are (for now anyway) and frame the other ones as well. Later I can still make them in a smaller version but not now." And that was that. I framed the other ones I had made and hung them in my bedroom. And the frames hang in their misaligned way but exactly that is the beauty of them as well. It gives it a human touch just like having a painting on the wall that hangs ever so slightly slouching to one side. My inner perfectionist keeled right over after that and fainted. He couldn't take it.
In my path of a photographer I have been trained only too well to produce perfection and neatness not only in image composition and layout but also in the colour hues of the filtered photos. Art school was even worse for it with discipline down to the millimeter. I understand the necessity of it but it can be a hinderance for me quite often making me judge my own work too harsh. While with some things it is absolutely necessary - just architecture alone - with others a bit of Wabi Sabi in the aesthetics is refreshing and human after all giving it its character and warmth and charme just as colouring outside the lines does which is Wabi Sabi at its best. And if it's not Wabi Sabi there is always 'artistic freedom'.
So while my inner critic is still out like a light I better continue on with some more Wabi Sabi...
Tine
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Unrelated to YOUR work though, this term wabi sabi makes me wonder if it could not lead to the slapdash and careless. See a flaw, aw, why fix it? It is wabi sabi! I'm in a group of local artists who meet once a month to show work and one person displayed a work in progress where one of the main figures had her hand drawn backwards. I mean, it looked weird and when you finally deciphered what was wrong you saw that one of the hands was attached to her wrist with the hand reversed (two left hands). When I pointed this out (very tactfully) to the artist (because she was asking for a critique) at first she did not even understand...then as realization dawned her face flushed red and she said "Oh THAT! Um, I meant to do that. Anyway, what's the big deal? It's all wabi sabi."
Well, maybe it is and maybe it isn't. Anyway, I will read the book! Thanks Tine, for the interesting topic.
Hope your are well!