Robert Motherwell said “I begin each painting with a series of mistakes” I love that! There is something freeing about those words.
But what is a mistake anyway? Dictionaries define it as “a wrong action proceeding from faulty judgement, inattention or lack of knowledge; a goof up, a slip up.” But what if a mistake is just part of the process, something unintended, maybe something we don’t even like. And like Motherwell’s position, maybe it’s just a starting point, or a leaping off point.
I mean honestly in the grand scheme of things how do we even know how things are supposed to be? How do we know an action is wrong just because our little selves don’t approve? And if it proceeds from lack of judgement, where does that leave us?? In art we certainly don’t want to start judging while we’re working. And judging is such a loaded word. Let’s edit, not judge.
Thinking about “mistakes” brings to mind the story of the poor farmer who’s horse runs away. The villagers say that’s terrible. But then the horse returns with a wild stallion in tow. The villagers applaud. The farmer’s son falls off the stallion in the course of training it and breaks his leg. The villagers lament this terrible event. But when the army consigns all the young men in the village the son cannot go because of his broken leg. And on it goes. The story is about what’s good and bad but it could just as easily be about mistakes. What was the mistaken action? Can we actually find it?
In this lives of ours we have so little perspective on the big picture. I think we’ve all had the experience of thinking something that happened to us was a mistake but at some point it turns out to be an opportunity.
I guess I am encouraging us all to think differently about how we view things, the good, the bad and the mistakes. What if it’s all just part of the journey that is our lives? What if we could accept even embrace those mistaken opportunities as Robert Motherwell suggests?
Wouldn’t life be a lot more enjoyable? Wouldn’t life flow along more smoothly if we didn’t waste our time and energy worrying, judging and regretting our “mistakes”?
