I just finished a painting that I started about a year ago. It is one of a series of three panels that make up one painting. I conceptualized and sketched all three canvass’ and painted the first 2 very quickly then stopped just short of the finish line.
Why?
Is it a fear of commitment? Not sure what to do with myself next? No loose ends to lament about? There is a part of me that likes being in the “middle of a piece” but that seems like a strange reason not to finish a project. I am left wondering if all artists, or people who engage in creative endeavors, ever find themselves in this same situation. I have heard of writers block, but am not sure how that translates here, I mean all I had to do was to put the paint on the canvas, the sketch had been completed a year ago. It’s not like I had to create something new…..
In life, I think, most of us have at one time or another started something; a small project around the house, a new hobby, reading a book, learning a new skill….only to abandon it part of the way through. What is it in our nature that drives us to do that? Especially when the sense of accomplishment when its done is so satisfying!
I may never come up with a good answer to that question, but for tonight, I am deeply satisfied having just completed a project that took way too long. Maybe next week I will clean out my closet!
