Lessons From Art: Let Go of Control

I have been "arting" (purposely) since 2012 and, surprisingly, Art has been a great teacher for me. I have already shared how Art has taught me the importance and joy of persistence and how to deal with the times that suck, and about how happiness is both a choice and a practice.

Another lesson that Art has helped me to see that control is incredibly overrated!

​When this lesson became incredibly clear, was when I was creating one of my favorite pieces, my scuba boy.

​When I first started this piece, I already knew what I was going to create. It was going to be these cute, funky gerber daisies.

And I was really jazzed about creating these adorable flowers.

​But, after posting this picture on my Facebook page...

I received comments about how much they loved this new "Under the Sea" piece. And that they were excited to see the seascape artwork.

I saw it too. It did look "watery"...but water looks like a sky too - Right??!! And these fun gerber daisies would have a SKY background. So it was all good... Right?

I dug my heels in. I planned to do daisies. I wanted to do daisies. I was going to do daisies - DAMNIT!

I continued on with my plans. I cut petals and glued together flowers. I arranged the flowers in multiple different ways. I added flowers, I took away flowers. I added a bee... But, with every change, something just wasn't right and I didn't feel good about the piece. I couldn't seem to "make it work".

All the while, the water-theme idea was floating around in my head, and the idea kept resurfacing. But I kept pushing it away, trying to drown it, because, this artwork was going to be daisies.           (all puns, intended)

I was trying so hard to control the process of creating art, that I wasn't allowing the creative process to happen.

Finally, I relented to the voice in my head (and the facebook comments) and explored creating an under the sea themed piece.

And, do you know what?!!? Everything fell together seamlessly. Once I let go of control and allowed the artwork to "create itself" the process was easy and so much fun!

It was such an amazing life lesson, beyond art! How many times has my desire to control an outcome, gotten in the way of progress? It made me wonder, "how important is control?" And, "how much control do I really have, anyway?"

And that is how art taught me that often it is a good idea to let go of control!

What do you think? Is the need to control overrated?
​Let me know in the comments below!

Make it a HAPPY day!