Above my sewing machine floats a post-it note with a message in all caps: FAIL FASTER!  It meets my eye each time I thread the needle and reorients my perfectionist tendencies to True North. There is no correct path here, no right way to make art. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…” – just pick one already – and get on with it.

I wish I could say I don’t get stuck on an idea or project, that I simply move forward without fear — but that would not be entirely true. I do, however, focus less on outcomes than at earlier points in my life. Perhaps the shift is due to my age or the pandemic or just not caring so much about results anymore — or perhaps all of the above. Whatever the reason(s), I’m grateful for the shift.

Taking an action, no matter how small — simply making a stitch or scraping dye on fabric — is often enough to reframe my thinking. (I imagine this is the way a musician feels when she practices her instrument or a writer as he puts pen to paper.) Textile artist Sue Benner reminds her students, “You’ve got to make a lot of bad art in order to make good art.” In other words, stop overthinking, get moving and fail faster!

I’m currently experimenting with “improvisational quilting” techniques. Like an improv performance, the artist works spontaneously without a concrete vision allowing instinct and fate to have a way with the artistic pursuit. When the stars align the results can be fresh, whimsical, unforced. But when things go awry – as they do – the results include heaps of fabric scraps, a punch-to-the-gut feeling and a deep sigh that sounds sort of like, “Well, Girl…that really sucks.” Whether the final results are pleasing or abysmal, I embrace the risk-taking and have added the practice to my repertoire. At the core of improv is the unshakeable belief that taking action (coupled with a “what-the-hell” attitude) is always the right choice.

Improvisational design seems most successful when the artist doesn’t overthink. Therein lies my Achilles’ heel.

The all-powerful “FAIL FASTER!” post-it above my sewing machine reminds me to stop ruminating and make the next cut, another stitch. Of course, I hope every stitch is beautiful. The greater goal, though –- one that requires a healthy dose of self-talk each day – is to not worry so much about the outcome. I probably won’t post photos of my trials and errors, but I view each stitch as moving my art-making (and my life) forward.

Best-selling author Lauren Groff had the audacity to suggest to a Harvard audience, “Failure is your friend when you are creating a work of art. What you want to do is fail…because you come up against the boundaries of what you can and cannot do. Moving the walls is hard work and it’s beautiful. It’s difficult, but that’s what art is.”

For Lauren Groff’s complete remarks on the merits of failing (and not overthinking it), check out this link. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/03/radcliffe-writer-lauren-groff-failure-can-breed-success/