Failing Successfully

If there is one thing in life that I have learned, it is how to fail successfully. I know this sounds odd to most people, I mean, how can you fail at something in a successful manner? I have had job fails, marriage fails, parenting fails, cooking failures and plenty of failed attempts at my art, but it is what I learned from all of the bigger failed events I've experienced, that I can still go on to have success if I persevere with positive enthusiasm. Often, I have failed at something that I had my mind set on succeeding with, that I may have had a particular vision about, that may have seemed so simple on the outset, but no matter what I did, it failed in some way. It has been through these failures that I have found some of the most profound successes.

There are so many parallels with living life and the process of making art. To make art, you really have to let go of your rigid expectations and let intuition and the unknown guide you. You have to be aware that at any moment, things can dramatically change. At any moment, you could discover something you never thought you would. I believe that I have developed a different approach to dealing with failures, by seeing them as opportunities to let go of fear and the basic human need for control. I like to think of it as moving on and then going in head first. Some of my best successes have come out of that approach. This painting is one of them. There are about 3 "failed" paintings under this final result. I prefer to think of those failures as the building up of beautiful layers to produce a strong surface. "Callas in the Sun" 24 X 30