Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.

Art is knowing which ones to keep.

Scott Adams

Quotes are weird.  A line of words, probably taken out of context, something that someone else [usually a famous someone] thought up, and who is usually considered an instant authority. We hang on every word.  We use the words almost as our own.

I happen to like this quote. It’s funny and, in some ways, true. There was a time that i just had too many blocks keeping me from doing art. The thing i ended up doing was to see every art project as an experiment. The word “experiment” helped me to let go of many of the things that held me back from starting and enjoying the process. 

In this quote, the word “mistake” is used. I think that we are all afraid of mistakes. Someone might call something that we make…wrong! Ahhhhh! But, the last part of the quote refers to art as knowing which mistakes to keep…not keeping things that turn out exactly as expected. How many wonderful things are here to enjoy because someone allowed their self to make mistakes. What else do we make most of the time anyway? Who does anything perfectly? What is so wrong with making something that we didn’t expect? Not all mistakes are wrong…and not all of them are called mistakes. Some of them might even be called “art.”