Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Agony

Understanding the fuzziness of perfection can really increase efficiency. Today I've been sorting out my old poems, choosing the best for a book of poems I'd like to put together, it's a goal for January. Choosing the "best" is always a matter of opinion, but it's important not to spend too long agonising over the choices.

Sometimes I've agonised over paintings, sometimes not. A long time later, the differences between the pictures are not apparent. So, does this mean I hit upon success with both? I think it's more a case of most of the agonising not being worth it. Sometimes it matters a great deal, but wonderful inspiration during that agony is very rare.

I often find, and I can see this in other artists too, that I can spend 90% of the thinking time considering 10% of the picture, and often not the most important 10% either! In short, haste can be your friend. In fact, confidence if it leads to anything leads to fast decisions, and fast decisions lead to confidence.

In four minutes I'll finish this blog entry, and tonight I'll finalise my list of poems. I might put together two books; one of poems generally which will include many of my favourites that I've not put on my website, and one of "painting poems", because many of my pictures have associated poems.