When It’s Done

Is this fantastical coral sculpture by Lisa Stevens complete? When I first saw it, I felt like the orange fans needed to encircle it more. Then, after looking it over, liking it regardless of that initial thought, it struck me that it is as complete as it needs to be. It’s representative of coral, which is never complete in the real world. It is an organic structure that is constantly building itself and so having this open side gives that room for that potential growth, conceptually speaking, of course. And it scores well in design elements and principles!

When do you know a piece is finished? It certainly can’t be that magical moment when it comes out just as you hoped, just as you saw it in your mind. When does that ever happen? And it’s not like there’s some established design tenet or measurement we can take that tells us, yes, this is done, this is perfect, there is nothing else you could do to make this better. Because, chances are, we will forever look at it and see the bit we aren’t happy with, contemplate what we could have done better, and see it as lesser than what we thought it should be.

(Not that we aren’t sometimes over the moon with what we create. They are rather like children to us, aren’t they? So, we don’t always mind the flaws, the incongruities, the less-than-perfect execution. Sometimes we love them for it. Luckily, most of our viewers and admirers don’t see the imperfections at all.)

The fact is, no piece of art is ever completely done because no piece of art is perfect. Yet, we usually equate completion with perfection. Well, we also equate completion with deadlines, throwing up our hands and saying, This is all I can do. It will have to be good enough.

But, barring those deadline driven ideas of completion, how DO you know when your work is done? Well, you can ask yourself a few questions:

• Is the design of working? (Use your Elements and Principles of Design lists to check off on each of the elements and concepts if you are uncertain.)
• Is the composition balanced with a path for the eye to follow, a path that is supportive of the piece’s intention?

And, most importantly…

• Is it expressing, showing, or representing what I set out to share in this piece?

If you can answer those three questions in a positive manner, it may be time to put down the tools, the paintbrush, the colorants, or whatever else you are about to accost your piece with, and step away. At least for a time.

If you wonder if it’s done but are uncertain, it likely is done or is close. So, this would be another occasion where it would be best if you set it aside, out of sight, so you can move onto the next thing and give yourself some distance from it. If you step away from it for at least a week, that would be best. Longer would be ideal, but even overnight would be better than continuing to hack away at it. That time away should allow you to see it with fresh eyes so you can better identify anything that’s missing, needs to be changed, or needs to be taken away.

If you’re on a deadline and have no time to gain that distance from it, take it to a mirror, turn it upside down (if you can), and analyze it from this new view.

More coral sculptures from Lisa Stevens to contemplate. These are porcelain and/or paper clay but I thought they could be quite inspiring for some of you polymer clayers as well.

The danger we are trying to avoid here, of course, is overworking it. Sometimes you are just too close to the piece after working on it for hours and days, or maybe even weeks, and either you can’t see what it needs or think something is a problem when it’s not. So, pull away when you start to think it might be done, or close enough that it would benefit from a fresh look after some time away. It is better to stop too early than work a piece to an irreversible point. Just repeat after me… stop early, not late.

I know that advice is not some kind of magic spell that will allow you to always know when to stop. But, remember, this is art, not a math problem. There is no final version of a piece where it will be all it can be. I think artwork is just like us—it becomes what it needs to be, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. It’s just a question of whether the improvement is needed.

Make sense? Great. Now, let’s go finish some work!

Clay Time!

I’m speaking of myself as well on that call to go finish some work. I’m going to run off and actually work at my studio table. I’ve been designing some deceptively simple necklaces and earrings, even though I had intended on starting some wall pieces. You just can’t tell the creative mind where to go or what to do, can you?

But also, Polyform has a ton of new clay colors they just sent me, so I’m playing with a few. There are quite a number I’m not likely to use for my work, so I’m going to pack up a few boxes this week to raffle off next weekend. Do come back and join me for that.

And if you are having a hard time finding some basic clay colors, I checked on Polyform’s site yesterday and they seem to have a lot in stock so check them out if you are running low on your favorite colors.

In the meantime, I hope you have a beautiful, cozy, safe, and creative week.

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