As I was working yesterday on a piece, I messed up a cutout while pasting it. The fear perked up that I surely would ruin the piece by trying to correct the mistake. This is not such an uncommon feeling. Every so often something happens that momentarily highlights doom! The piece can go any which way from that point.
Recalling this feeling later in the day led me to pull out a Giacometti portrait by James Lord. (This is the only book I keep on my computer desk…barely noticeable among all the assorted papers, envelopes, and small notebooks.) The whole book is about James Lord’s experience having his portrait done by Giacometti. It is a wonderful portrait of artistic process: rants against futility as efforts to do the impossible move forward. I enjoy reading it again and again. At one point Giacometti warns him, “Just wait…I’m going to wreck it now.”
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