Perfectionism Is the Enemy…

Confession time. I have never in my 30+ years of making art professionally created a piece of art that looks as good as it does in my head. It has yet to happen. Believe me, I will tell you when I do. There have been a few pieces that have come close, but the picture in my head has always exceeded my ability to create it. At times this has been really frustrating. At other times it has made me want to give up. If you’ve felt that way, here’s my advice. DON’T! These thoughts have brought me to a conclusion…

Perfectionism is the enemy of creativity.

Just because you can’t do something perfectly, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Here’s the thing, there is only one person who can see the picture in your head and that’s you. If you let perfectionism keep you from doing it anyway, you are the only one who will even catch a glimpse of it. The rest of the world will never know. Art is a gift. We share that gift with the world. Holding it in, or even withholding it, because it can’t meet some internal standard deprives the world of your gift.

This is compounded for the Christian artist whose vision is coming from the Lord (the only one actually capable of perfect by the way). I’ll leave you with one other thought. We have never seen a perfect creation from the Lord. I know that sounds like heresy, but it’s not. This world we live in has been corrupted by sin. Even the immense beauty of all we can see that the Lord created has been marred by the effects of sin in our world. Only in heaven and in the new heavens and the new earth will we see God’s creation in its true perfection, but that doesn’t stop Him from creating. Instead He shows us beauty that keeps us looking heavenward. If He doesn’t keep us looking to heaven, to Him and to Christ’s finished work on the cross, if He doesn’t draw us to Himself and coming to faith in Christ, we will never see His perfection, and so He continues to create beauty that gets us to look to Him.

Maybe we Christian artists need to do the same.