I bet this passage would resonate with any one who has ever tried something new, and was scared to do it. Making art, in my opinion, is always a risk! You never know exactly what you're doing, or why you're doing it. Maybe it started with a spark or the urge to pick up a certain material or the need to work with your hands. Maybe you just started a project after years of inactivity, or maybe you're a professional artist who is in their studio daily. Regardless of who you are or what you're work involves, we've all been afraid to fail, especially when trying something new.
This writing reinforces the feelings I express above. I particularly like the line "Techniques of relation access their creative potential most when they operate at the edge of what they are preconceived to do. For this to happen, they must embrace the eventuality of their own failure as a creative factor in their process."
This to me means that our best work is actually made when it is different from how we normally work, that when we take risks and experiment, our work has the most potential. But trust me, this can be scary! Since entering grad school last year, I have been encouraged to try new things and experiment. Though I see the benefits in this, it can be hard at times. A lot of what makes it scary is that there is a chance it could fail. The materials could fail, or not work the way you had hoped, and the idea, the way it is interpreted, can fail as well.
Another great example of this is with our portrait project! I am not 100% confident in what I'm creating or what will come next, and that can be scary. It's hard sometimes to continue working on a project when you don't know how it will end up, or if it will look the way you hoped.
Reading these lines reminds me that the greatest pay off often lies just beyond that hump, the mountain of fear. Once we are able to let go and accept the possibility of failure, climbing over our insecurities and fear, amazing things can happen!