Perfectionism and excellence in art

Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead.  It is a way to keep you blocked.  It is a negative action that fools you into thinking you are doing it better.  In fact you are being obsessed, you are making it worse, you are killing your creativity, you are flowing with fear instead of the real freedom of your creative being.


Perfectionism is the enemy of art.  You may callit something else.  "getting it right" you may call it "fixing it before I go any furhter.  You may call it "having standards"  What you should call it is PERFECTIONISM.  Perfectionism has nothing to do with getting it right.  It has nothing to do with fixing things.  It has nothing to do with standards.  Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead.  It is a loop, and OBSESSIVE, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck in the details of what your are writing or painting or making and to lose sight of the whole.  Perfectionism calls this humility.  Ie reality it is egotism.

Julia Cameron.  The artist way


If you focus on success, you’ll have stress. But if you pursue excellence, success will be guaranteed."
— Deepak Chopra




Personal comment
I say perfectionism is fear....  It is a demand that comes from the ego.  It is intended to satisfy your own judment or someone else's.  Perfectionism takes away all spontaneity.  It is about control.  It is about not letting go until we fulfill total satisfaction from the ego (which is NEVER satisfied),   Perfectionism is an obsession.  It is about fear of not pleasing others, specially ourselves Perfectionism comes from our JUDGE, the one that condemns what we do or make.  This, too, is never satisfied.  Perfeactionism is not about joy (art is) it is not about spontaneity (art is) it is not about fulfilling the soul (art is).  It is about satisfying our frustration with more self induced frustration.  Perfectionism is dangerous.  It hurts  our artistic being.






"Perfectionism doesn't believe in practice shots. It doesn't believe in improvement. Perfectionism has never heard that anything worth doing is worth doing badly--and that if we allow ourselves to do something badly we might in time become quite good at it. Perfectionism measures our beginner's work against the finished work of masters. Perfectionism thrives on comparison and competition. It doesn't know how to say, "Good try," or "Job well done." The critic does not believe in creative glee--or any glee at all, for that matter. No, perfectionism is a serious matter." 
— Julia Cameron (Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance)


Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.
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— Eugène Delacroix


The best way to navigate through life is to give up all of our controls." 
— Gerald G. Jampolsky (Love Is Letting Go of Fear