May 25, 2008

People love your Imperfections

I was at the Odessa Art & Craft Show yesterday, which overall was a very quite show to say the least thanks to the first sunny weekend of the year! And at the very last minute of the show a customer reminded me of a fault that all us artists have -- we critique our own art too much.

I have a good friend who is an amazing DJ and spin artist. For years we have been begging him to make us a CD. Finally after 7 years of begging we finally got one and do you know what he said? "It's not perfect so please don't share it with anyone else." So we listened and do you know what? To us it was perfect, it was fantastic!

So back to the Odessa Show, the customer wanted to buy an Inushuk that I had made out of beach glass (of course). The only thing is that in my mind it wasn't for sale because it was really just a prototype and not perfect. You could see some of the glue, the legs were too close together, etc. So when he asked to buy it I was shocked and do you know what I said? "Well it really wasn't for sale, you can see the glue." He said, he didn't care or notice and loved it anyway. He didn't pay full-pop for it, but probably would have if I asked him to.

If we wait until it's perfect, we'll never leave the studio. The point of the story is, you don't need to spend all your time making it perfect from your point of view, just perfect enough from the customers view - they love your imperfections, it's what makes it one-of-a-kind.

1 comments:

Christine Peets said...

I love your post about loving your imperfections. That applies to writing too. I'm always changing things and even after it's printed, I see ways it could be better. But, there comes a point when you have to say, "it's good" and send it out there.
Christine Peets
Freelance Writer
Writing and Communications Instructor
captionscommunications.ca