My daughter was horrified to see me tearing out all the crocheting I did over the last week.
I decided that the infinity scarf I was working on was too long and I didn't like it, so I pulled out all the stitches and re wound the wool to start over.
There is no shame in reworking something that isn't right, in fact it can be a key creative process. As we work creatively there is a communication between us and the work we are doing, and sometimes things change drastically in between.
The large piece I'm working on for painting class is an example. The painting is called Elephant Skin, and it's supposed to look like the skin of an elephant (big surprise) but I also wanted it to look like a landscape, giving an indication of our connection to the land, no matter what species we are.
But the painting wasn't working completely for me. I loved the skin texture, and the build up from the canvas I was doing but the dark night sky seemed more like a flat dead space, or worse a dark hole. This wasn't the image I was trying to convey.
So after consulting with my professor we did something else entirely.
We turned the canvas upside down.
Now the drips from the application of the rice paper onto the canvas look like radio towers in the distance, and the dark blue is going to be a lake.
It's still Elephant skin but now it speaks even more to our connection to the land, and how our development is crowding species at risk.
Now the lake needs to be adjusted with some colour and reflections, but reworking, and relooking at the painting is making it more meaningful to me.
Back to the crochet.... for me sometimes the process of creating something is more important than the final product. So restarting something isn't so bad.
