The piece I ruined by trying to fix it
had a collage almost where I wanted it this morning. not finished but close, that fragile state where one wrong move sends the whole thing sideways. i knew this. i looked at it and thought "you know what this needs" and i put a single torn strip of something right through the middle. instant dead. killed the air out of it completely.
now it's sitting on the floor leaning against the wall and i keep glancing at it hoping it somehow fixed itself while i wasn't looking. i know the move is to scrape it down and start that layer over but i'm mad about it so i'm just going to sit with being mad for the rest of the day and start fresh tomorrow.
anyone else got a piece on punishment rotation right now
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ah sure I know the exact feeling. that "you know what this needs" is the devil talking, I swear. done the same thing a hundred times, looking at a print block with a clean proof sitting there and thinking "sure I'll just open up that shadow a small bit" and then you've a gouge through the hare's eye and the whole thing's banjaxed.
the looking at it hoping it fixed itself is the bit that gets me though. I've had pieces leaning against walls for weeks that way, like they're in timeout. and the mad thing is sometimes they do tell you something eventually, just not what you wanted to hear.
let yourself be mad. give it the rest of the day. tomorrow morning you'll know whether to scrape it or do something else entirely with it. grand either way.
This whole thread I am reading and thinking yes, yes, exactly this. In Mithila painting also the same thing happens. You are working on a piece for days, the lines are fine, the colour is sitting just right, and then you think "maybe one more border, maybe a little more detail here" and suddenly everything is ruined. The design becomes too heavy, the balance is gone, the story does not speak anymore.
I keep those pieces also. Something to learn from them, even if they are spoiled. My mother used to say, the mistake is also a kind of teaching. But the feeling when it happens, very hard. You have my sympathy ji. 🙏
i love that your mother said that. mine would've said "well don't do it again then" like it was that simple lol. but the mistake-as-teaching thing, i do believe it, i just have to get past the sulking phase first.
the border thing is so real. one more ring of detail and suddenly the whole thing can't breathe. we're out here learning the same lesson over and over
the hare's eye 😬 that one hurts just hearing it. yeah the devil alright, whispering and i keep picking up.
the timeout thing is real though. i've got a piece that's been in the corner for six months. i walk past it every day and give it a look like "are you ready to talk yet" and it just ignores me. eventually i'll cave and scrape it but i have to be good and ready to admit i was wrong first.