“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
― Ira Glass
Right after I wrote the post about exploration, I read another post that seemed to apply to apply and my dissatisfaction with the finished product. It’s the quote above by Ira Glass. I found it on Tien’s blog via A Moveable Feast. Since the quote is from Ira Glass, that prompted a search for the quote. I found it on Good Reads, but it could probably be found in other places. The piece above is another not very successful piece. To get the angles I wanted, I wove it sideways, but I hemmed the sides. Because of the hems, it doesn’t hang very well and is not good for a rug. I may dig it out and see if it can be salvaged someday, but for now it’s deep in the dark recesses of the closet. And notice how the red lines appear to curve? I have other not successful pieces, but I cut them off early without completing them! They’re lying around with hangtags that explain what went wrong.