page 281 sometimes the mistakes
Helen Carter“Sometimes the mistakes are what makes a work great. Humanity breathes in mistakes.” — Rick Rubin, The Creative Act, page 281
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“All I want is peace and love on this planet / Ain’t how that God planned it?” — Public Enemy, and a favorite quoted line at our house, which I assume is a gorgeous mistake, and that’s the reason we’ve been summoning it up for decades
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I fear a lot of stuff but not the mistakes I make while actually making things.
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(Possibly because I’ve traditionally feared success more than failure. Failure is a comfortable nest, a known entity, a predictable path. Oh yes, here it comes, oh, uh-huh, yup, and there it is. It failed. Right on time. I know the cost. Just like last time. Just like next time. Predictable, cheap, reliable. Failure is the McDonald’s of fear.)
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Once you open your self to the world of mistakes that aren’t linked to failure, (I mention casually, as if it's easy) everything shifts. I’ve always wanted to see “what if” and there is no finding out without fucking up.
- Also I just don’t care about things that look perfect. They bore me. My mind instantly equates them to fascism. And if that doesn’t make sense to you, that’s okay with me.
- The more we have computers and ro-butts to make things ‘for us’ the more I want to see human hands and mistakes in the art I love. I want a little slip, some slop, I want some seams to show, some rawness, some traces of us to endure. Ain’t how that god planned it?