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失敗 和 藝術 ～ Failure and Art



失敗 和 藝術 ～ Failure and Art

How do you see failure?

How do you see what is broken?

The other day I was talking to someone I had never met before at the gym when suddenly they looked at me and asked "Are you an artist?"

I did a double take.

"Hmm... Artist? What do you mean artist? What makes you say that?"

"You have a paintbrush in your hair"

"Oh that. It keeps my hair tied up when I need to work out, but is also very practical for when I need a brush quickly. Like last month when I used it to brush egg wash on the mooncakes I made for the Mid-Autumn festival"

The truth is, I'm an artist at heart with an incessant need to create. I love to paint, to sculpt and do pottery. But as that isn't the most productive of activities (unless I really need to clear my head), I incorporate art into everything I do. I design and create my own jewellery and clothes. I design and build my own websites and do all my own photography. I write daily, painting pictures with words. I cook everything from scratch, always wanting to create the most intense flavours from the simplest of ingredients. And sometimes in all of that I sleep.

Art was always my favourite subject in school. It was also the only club I was allowed to stay after school and join. Every Wednesday from 3-4pm. I really wanted to study art and become an artist, but this was strongly discouraged so respectfully I went to a local college to study IT and languages. Still, within just a few months I had also signed up for a class to study pottery!

That's when I made the piece above.

I had visions of perfection in my head. A perfectly round globe, precisely cut countries. I worked on it over several weeks, and as time went by it started to collapse and became less and less spherical. Part of me felt like I had failed yet the other part didn't want to waste what I had already done. So I integrated the failure into the piece itself. I named it: "Trapped in a Decaying World"

All the detritus surrounding the trapped little personage came from the sculpture itself. The damage became it's story, the waste became part of the art. Full circle. That's how I like to work.


Sometimes in life we can feel trapped just like that little person. Trapped in a cycle of expectations. Trapped in a cycle of failures. Trapped in a cycle of buried dreams. Trapped until we realise we are small enough to fit through the grid. Trapped until we realise there is a large opening right above our head. Trapped until we realise life is a choice.

Our choice.

A choice to remain trapped. A choice to do something about it. I may not have made it to art school, but that didn't stop me pursuing my art. I may not have reached perfection, but that didn't stop me producing beautiful pieces. You may have been bad at a subject in school, but that doesn't mean you can't be good at it in the future. Break that cycle now! Stop feeling trapped and start making your very biggest dreams a vibrant reality! It's time to unlock your hidden powers to learn! Subscribe to The Hidden Secrets of Learning podcast and discover the best ways to do this. What's your best anecdote to failure?

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