MAKE YOUR OWN MONDAYS: CLOSING "THE GAP"What makes the difference between artists who make meaningful, successful work and artists who don't?
More than anything, it's this:
The best way to make good work is to make A LOT of work... but doing the same thing over and over again is not going to allow for much growth. Students who challenge themselves, research, experiment, and become comfortable with ambiguity (not knowing) are much more likely to develop quickly as artists. MYOM (Make Your Own Mondays) are your chance to play around with your own new ideas without any risks. These days are for you to experiment, push yourself, and venture outside of your comfort zone. The things you work on during MYOMs do NOT need to relate in any way to assigned projects/classwork. 
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“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit.
Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one [art piece]. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” - Ira Glass |
