Art and Failure

You Can’t Have One Without the Other

Art and failure have gone hand in hand since the beginning of time. It’s not unusual nor is it particular to art. Any goal that anyone has ever had has its fair share of failure. Any career in any field, sports, music, agriculture, weight loss, acting…anything you can think of, is not attainable without failing first and throughout the journey.

Think about it. The fight against diseases such as cancer or diabetes is ongoing, meaning the journey has been full of failed attempts. Top athletes and Olympians did not get there with one attempt. Top selling musicians and actors did not achieve their notoriety on the first audition or reading.

Why would you think you’re exempt from making mistakes? Failure is the greatest tool for learning. Take advantage of it! (Photo Credit: 123RF.com Copyright: Denis Pepin)

As an artist, what makes you think you’re exempt from going through the same obstacles and hardships as everyone else?

For some reason humanity has come to expect success right out of the box. We’ve been culturally trained to avoid failure at all cost. Why? It’s an integral part of life. A baby does not give up trying to walk after it falls down the first, second, or hundredth time. It just keeps going until it masters the art of walking. It doesn’t care who’s watching or who notices that it fell again. But somewhere in our young lives, perhaps due to peer pressure or an innocent but ill-thought out comment by an adult, we do all that we can to avoid making mistakes.

A life story without any difficulty whatsoever (if it exists), lacks anything special. Think about your favorite movie or book. Every good story has a hero that has had to overcome hardship. Even in romantic comedies the main character has to fail miserably and then work his way back to win the person of his or her affections. That triumph at the end is payoff. The success after not giving up failure after failure is what makes it all worthwhile.

And think about art. Much of what we do is experimentation.

It would be totally unreasonable to expect every experiment to pan out on the first attempt. Thomas Edison is quoted as saying that he did not fail at making the light bulb one thousand times. He learned a thousand ways to NOT make a light bulb. So if your work of art is not coming out the way you envision, you’re learning through your mistakes what works and what doesn’t. If you’re busy failing, at least you’re in the game! Most people won’t even take the first steps for fear of failure.

If you want to reach your goals as an artist, it’s important to remember three points:

1. Success doesn’t come easy. Nothing worthwhile ever does.
2. Failure is the best teacher. Every failure is an opportunity to learn.
3. Failure is not the end…unless you let it be the end.

The truth of the matter is, failing builds character. It teaches endurance and determination. How badly do you want to achieve your goals? Art and failure always goes hand in hand. If we were successful at every turn, there wouldn’t be anything special about it. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Everyone would be what they want to be and no dreams would fall by the wayside. So the real question is…how badly do you want to be an artist?

Further Reading:

How to Silence the Inner Art Critic