Monster Soup

It’s still Thursday where I live, so I kept my promise. :D The page was actually just finished minutes ago. Normally I would work and work and work on those small details to make everything just right. But I came across an interesting story from the book Art & Fear.

“The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.”

I started today with only the inks complete, and the thought of missing today’s update loomed heavy. I promised last week there would be a new page and I didn’t want to break that promise. So when I stumbled upon the above story, it really resonated with me. So what if the page will never be perfect. At least it’s done and I can move onto the next. And once I started to change my way of thinking, my speed increased. I just hope this mindset continues! (I also hope I didn’t jinx myself just now.)