There's No Time and There's Always Time

I remember a boss I had when I worked in a laboratory years ago. When we had to redo a batch of tests, he'd say, "You never have time to do it right, but you always have time to do it over."

Wow, what a great line! It was an "aha!" moment the first time I heard it. Even though it seemed to take on the life of a mantra for this boss, I felt I "got it" right away: It was a cautionary implicit warning that I heard in my head ever after (at least in the lab). Stressful though some assignments may be, it actually gave me an inverse kind of freedom to "do things right," as it became easier to follow a procedure to a T than opt for seeming time-saving shortcuts--shortcuts whose results could effectively wind up necessitating the do-over. And the cherry on top was the peace of mind for having stuck to the right procedure.

Long story short(er): Some years ago, the idea of a picture of carousel horses escaping a carousel came to me. That is, they pretty much came to life and ran off. I thought, "What a cool idea for a picture!"

Once I decided that I was going to render this image, there was a problem. While the picture in my head had elegance and pizazz, figuring what exactly to put on paper and, eventually, canvas, was surprisingly tricky. All along, I had this nagging feeling that there was a step-by-step way, evolving though it may be, that I could implement to realize this cool idea. However, not heeding my former boss's advice, I plunged ahead, repeatedly discarding much too much possible planning that would've made this a pleasant process. I worked on this piece like I didn't have time to do it right. Ultimately, I started--but didn't quite truly complete--four paintings before I rendered one that I could plausibly say conformed to the original idea.

Good Night Carousel

 

Until then, you see, I violated the lab's mantra. I didn't take the time to do it right. I didn't want to wait any longer to show off my "being an artist," and, ironically, I actually lost waaay more time with my false starts than simply taking the time to systematically plan and execute how I was going to realize this image. Of course, I never had the luxury of saying those first impatient attempts were acceptable...but I had the time to "do it over."

It was gratifying to finally say, "I'm done." And while I recognize that it didn't really match what was in my head, the eventual rendering actually excited me that I could create more art along the same lines (and way)--confident that they will only get better and better....