Embracing mistakes and the power of screwing up...er...improvisation.

The name of this painting is Trim the Velvet. It’s one of my favorite Irish tunes (Maisigh An Veilbhit, which means “decorate the velvet” in Gaelic), although I have never learned it. It’s one of those Celtic tunes that cycles through many parts (4!), and crescendos to a high c, which, on a penny whistle is apocalyptic when played by the wrong (my) hands.

You can purchase a print of this painting in the online shop (click here).

There are no mistakes; there are only improvisations on a theme.

This was the best bit of wisdom I ever got from a musician.

I once had a flute teacher who forced me to play a tune and make as many mistakes as I possibly could. If the tune went up, I forced it to go down. If the tune turned left, I wandered to the right. If the tune jumped a fifth, I smacked it hard so it only jumped a third.

Gradually I internalized the tune, so that I could play it at the drop of the hat, starting anywhere, in any bar. And wonder of wonders, all those “mistakes” I made became actual variations, small changes to a tune that make it more interesting to play and hear.

A wonderful thing happened. I learned the tune so well, that I could, off-the-cuff and in the middle of a raging session, make a conscious decision to play any variation that I’d made up. It was so much fun; it felt like flying.

Making those deliberate mistakes got out of my rut, plus, they helped me learn the tune so much better.

    “There are no mistakes. Only improvisations.”

The painting at the top of this blog post took form in much the same way. It took a long time to come into being. I painted 12 versions of the same painting. And I made about every mistake a person can make in those 12 paintings. Sometimes I made pretty awful color decisions (and sometimes no decisions at all). I struggled to create soft edges. I roared into the painting and impatiently splashed dark values onto the paper too soon. But I paid attention to the paint and water, and my brush as it touched the paper.

It's the same idea for any kind of creativity. Color outside the lines. Write ridiculous words. Put two eggs in the pancakes instead of one. Try cinnamon in your spaghetti sauce, dark chili powder in your chocolate cake.

The point of this is, go out and make mistakes. It's the way we learn!