I borrow another perspective, imagining the work through someone else’s eyes because I have been standing so close to it protecting myself from the discomfort of changing it,
I borrow another perspective, letting myself explore a style or approach that feels unfamiliar even when that does not come naturally to me,
I borrow another perspective, I have mistaken familiarity for knowing what I am capable of and I may never meet if I keep returning to the same choices,
I borrow another perspective, what might I discover if I stopped insisting that the next attempt has to look like something I already know how to make,
I borrow another perspective, the unfamiliar begins to offer possibilities that my habits could not show me…
I change the meaning, approaching the same material with a different feeling, a different memory, or a different imagined audience, because the way I have been holding them has become too narrow,
I change the meaning, allowing myself to feel strange while I try a new interpretation instead of dismissing it because it does not resemble the first intention I had when I began,
I change the meaning, I know how easily I can become attached to the explanation and miss what the work might become if I let it speak from somewhere else,
I change the meaning, can I let this piece surprise me without feeling that I have betrayed the reason I wanted to make it in the first place,
I change the meaning, something familiar begins to feel unfamiliar enough for me to see it again…
I leave some things out, giving the work less information, and more room for choices I could never have predicted if I had tried to control every detail before I even began,
I leave some things out, the empty space unsettles me because I am used to believing that more direction will protect me from getting lost,
I leave some things out, learning that I can sometimes hear what the work needs only after I stop filling every silence with another explanation,
I leave some things out, what am I adding because the work truly needs it because I am afraid to leave the next decision open,
I leave some things out, the space I feared begins to feel like somewhere the work can breathe…
I let myself experiment, carrying forward what I have learned while accepting that I cannot know in advance bring me closer to the feeling I have been trying so hard to recover,
I let myself experiment, I do not want my experience to become a set of familiar answers that keeps me from asking new questions whenever the work begins,
I let myself experiment, even when the result is awkward or leads nowhere, because I am trying to loosen the belief that every attempt must justify itself by becoming something worth keeping,
I let myself experiment, can I allow a failed attempt to remain an experience rather than turning it into evidence that I should not have tried,
I let myself experiment,as I build the work becomes a place I can return to with curiosity instead of fear…
Watchwords:
The unfamiliar offers possibilities
Something familiar begins to feel unfamiliar
More room for choices
Somewhere the work can breathe
Curiosity instead of fear
Here is Tikatarot, who dares you to answer the question, “Who am I?”..
As and will always be reminding you to dream: