Perfectionism is killing your output
There’s a quiet epidemic in creative culture.
It’s not laziness.
It’s not lack of talent.
It’s perfectionism.
The allure of the Clean Slate
Somewhere along the way we were taught:
If you mess up, start over.
If it’s not excellent, don’t publish.
If it’s not original, delete.
If it’s not elite, don’t try.
That mindset works in surgery, but not with creativity.
When I make what I perceive to be an mistake in a piece, I don’t restart. I build around it. I’ll admit sometimes this takes a conscious effort. This thought process isn’t original. As Bob Ross coined it, a “happy accident.”
In fact, I propose that we shouldn’t use the word “mistake” anymore in reference to creation. It’s just a decision. It is the imprint of being handcrafted in a time of automation. Otherwise, it can seem like a justification for selling something that can be perceived as not good enough, which is not my goal. If I wanted a literal copy of something, then I’d take a picture of it.
Perfectionism doesn’t make better art.
It makes zero art.
The Myth of the Velvet Rope
The art world has a long-standing tendency to market itself as:
Exclusive
Expensive
Academic
Hoity-toity
Like you need a trust fund and a gallery collection just to have an opinion.
That’s nonsense.
Art is not a bidding war at Sotheby’s. It’s not reserved for people who know when to say “postmodern.”
Art is problem solving.
Art is experimentation.
Art is conversation.
Art is iteration.
If you’re thinking, you’re already participating.
Creative Labs > Ivory Towers
That’s why this site isn’t a “portfolio.”
It’s a lab. Labs are messy, produce prototypes, and test ideas publicly.
A lab is democratic.
Anyone can walk in.
Anyone can experiment.
Anyone can observe the process.
The opposite of perfectionism isn’t sloppiness. It’s movement.
Output/Ego
Perfectionism is usually just ego in disguise.
We don’t want to look amateur.
We don’t want to be misunderstood.
We don’t want criticism.
But the people shaping culture aren’t the most perfect. They’re usually the most prolific. They ship, iterate, and move on. Volume creates clarity -> Repetition creates style -> Momentum creates identity.
Democratizing the Art Conversation
Art should not be:
Gatekept
Academically suffocating
Financially exclusive
Limited to collectors
It should be lived with. Argued with. Built with. Responded to.
Thought leadership in art isn’t about sounding intellectual.
It’s about asking better questions:
What if this wasn’t finished?
What if mistakes are the medium?
What if accessibility matters more than prestige?
What if we stopped waiting to be “good enough”?
Iteration beats hesitation. Every time. If this is a creative lab, then this is an experiment. And I’m not starting over.
***Update a month later: This piece is the result of fighting my internal thoughts to restart:
