This post was originally posted on my previous website on April 5, 2023 and is being reposted here for posterity.
I've had this website sitting in draft form for nearly two months now. I know that I ought to have a website as an artist, especially with social media falling apart around us. I generally know what I'm doing. I can add pages and blocks and generally make them all connect.
But it didn't feel like enough. I'm between mediums, so what I have to show off is my old work and a sampling of what's new. My photos of my most impressive projects are terribly lit cell phone work in progress photos.
I stared at my website for hours, feeling lost. What should I include? How do I write about myself in a way that's genuine but also engaging and professional?
How do I click "publish" if it isn't perfect?
This has been my biggest struggle as an artist for years. I get so caught up in my own perfectionism that I can't even begin sometimes. I want to create what I see in my mind, but am paralyzed by the fear it won't live up to my own expectations. But, as I've read before, sucking at something is the first step to being kind of good at something.
My art doesn't need to be perfect. I can't learn and improve unless I'm doing the thing, no matter how many YouTube tutorials I watch.
So I'm finding ways to just begin. To play with the materials. To let my whims take charge and see what happens. Art is the process as much as it is the end product. Creating brings me so much joy and feels like endless magic and I've been on a quest to overcome my own anxieties to allow myself to just DO.
It's enough to need something to exist and to make it happen. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just needs to be.