Another Girl at Play - Women Artists Making Creative Dreams Real

On this site:

NEWSLETTERS:
The most recent newsletter is displayed to your right and the archives below begin from oldest to newest.

MAY 2002

It just didn't work out - that's my new phrase as the "I've failed" one just had to go.

When you're dealing with creative people, you're for the most part dealing with sensitive souls. Creative people don't create meaningless things; it tends to come from deep within them. And when they create or do such personal things, they're not doing it to climb any ladder of success, but rather to express themselves in a certain way. And believe me, they'll try a lot of different ways.

Last year, I realised I wanted to do more creatively and joined a Docent program at a local art museum. I didn't have a lot of knowledge about art, about being a docent or working in a museum but thought I would give it a try and see where it lead to.

Eight months later, I realise it just wasn't the path for me. I am not a museum type person, I'm not a lecturer, and just talking about art doesn't do anything for me because I'd rather get people making it. After months of feeling like I didn't belong there, I made the decision to leave to program. It just didn't work out.

At first, however, I thought perhaps I had failed. When you quit something, isn't that failure? If I was in the old 9-5 grind and I quit a job, people would wonder what was wrong with me. They'd ask if I knew I was jeopardising my career, or giving up security or if I was in fact mad for leaving. However, I've learned that the creative world is just much more forgiving in terms of trying on different jobs and seeing which ones do - or don't - fit.

As creative people, we tend to get more ideas than the average bear, and our enthusiasm and the freedom we generally have leads us to want to try each one of them. Sometimes they're successful and sometimes, well, they just didn't work out. There's no failure as long as an attempt was made. At least if we try an idea that didn't work out, we know, and we can move forward without wondering.

I asked each of the women of Another Girl at Play what jobs they had before they did what they're currently doing and for the most part, you'll see a long and varied list. For many of them, they had to try on different hats to find the one that not only fit, but also looked good on them. For some, it was a long process of trial and error and for others, it was a quick match. But few of them ever got it on the first try and sometimes, even when they found a match, there were adjustments to make. Sometimes in the beginning, they would think things would be working only to realise later on they actually weren't. But it never stopped them from trying new ideas, jobs, or creative process. In fact, most of these women try more despite the fact that sometimes things just don't' work out.

Seeing these women constantly evolving and changing, has helped me to realise that there is no such thing as failure but actually, things that just didn't work out. In fact, failure really only belongs to attempts not made, because as long as you try, you've succeeded.

So, perhaps volunteering at the museum wasn't right for me, but maybe there's another program out there with my name on it. I'll try it, and see if that works out. Maybe it will, and maybe it won't. Somehow, it doesn't entirely matter.