Ira Glass on creative work.
I love this video clip so, so much. Basically he talks about how it takes a lot of time and practice, doing work that isn't as good as you know you can and want to do, but eventually, if you put in the time and effort, you will get better and you will get to where you are making things/doing work that matches up with the vision you have for yourself. Please go watch it.
I think in some ways I'm really lucky because I learned this thing I love to do, sewing, of course, so early in my life. I can remember very clearly being 9 and 10 and 11 years old and crying in frustration over projects that didn't come out the way I wanted them to. I remember my mom being patient with me and helping me. And eventually I got to the point where I could pretty much accomplish what I set out to do. (Except sometimes I still don't. Oh well.)
But there are certain skill sets that I could definitely continue to work on and improve. Putting in zippers is still a bit intimidating for me. Maybe I just need to do 20 more of them or so and then I'll feel like a zipper pro, like zippers are no big deal. There are advanced sewing techniques like welt pockets, that I've heard of but never tried. There's the whole big learning thing that is sewing for myself and learning how to alter patterns to fit myself.
I could go on and on. In my quilting work, which spans a shorter time period, I can definitely tell that I've grown and improved but I still have things to learn and ways to grow (who wants to do a blog tutorial about Squaring Up Quilts before binding? I don't think I learned about this properly yet!) I also feel like I am still in a learning and slightly awkward phase in my blogging, and I hope to get better at it as I work on it more over time.
I'd love to hear your reactions to the video clip, if you watch it!
fyi: I saw this linked over on Creative Kismet. I saw the link somewhere else too, but I can't remember where. I have another quote thingie to share with you later on this week, it's another really good one. :)
4 comments:
I love Ira Glass. I agree with everything he said. For me, surrounding myself with people who have a similar creative interest is helpful, too. We have to do what he said and not get frustrated, keep trying.. but we need to have mentors and friends to encourage and teach us, too. Those make the biggest difference, I think. Everyone needs cheerleaders.
Thanks for sharing! It's so great to hear from the artists themselves and I'm happy to see you so inspired! You are very lucky to learn sewing so early in life! You've accomplished so much! I haven't worked with zipper at all!
He's basically saying, 'get over the fear that your work isn't going to be good enough because it won't be. But eventually if you work enough, you'll close the gap and your work will be.' This is a great concept! Thanks for sharing.
P.S. I remember joking with my mom as a teenager that I was going to be 30 and calling her do zippers for me. Practice makes perfect -- I haven't had to have my mom help me with a zipper since then.
I recently read a blog tutorial on squaring up quilts before binding. :)
http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2010/02/blocking-quilt.html
Post a Comment