Best

Best: striving for the top

I keep seeing people asking for your best work, and as an artist and a member of Judgement-Anonymous, I just can’t do it. This whole high score mentality is part of the problem in our society today. I rarely read most of my work after writing, like much of my art once its done I just let it go. I have long said that the process of an artist trying to convince others that their art is good is disfunctional. For me I am blessed to do art: woodworking, writing, forestscaping, cooking or teaching.

The categorization of “best” is purely judgement. When we try to identify the “best” and it’s pure opinion, sadly often pushed as fact. A basketball player is labeled the best based on points scored or most championships, yet the true best may never even have played a professional game. We can allow for our ignorance, and share our thoughts as just opinion, rather than trying to convince others our opinion is fact.

Our society continues to push for the top, the top salary, the biggest house, the fastest car and this high score mentality is awful. For me it’s not about this judgement based comparison, rather it’s just best effort. Is a baseball players best day when he goes 4-4 and hits two home runs, or the day he goes 1-3 while fighting the flu against a pitcher he’s never gotten a hit against before. Some of my best performances have been on some of my worst days. How I handled myself the day I was arrested is something I”m extremely proud of.

“It’s about the process not the product” is the age old cliche, yet our society is all about the product. I dive into the process, bury myself in the writing, the sanding, the cooking, the shaping, and when I’m done, then I”m done. At that point I would prefer someone else take the piece, give me their feedback(positive or negative) and I can move on. I”m ready to start the next piece.

When any artist create a piece and then has to justify that it’s good it brings the element of doubt into the conversation. Today the process of sales is trying to convince others something is good, or better yet great. I work hard to improve my marketing(getting my products out there) and stop short of convincing anyone that my product is good. I appreciate when people share their opinion, “that’s beautiful” though stop well short of any universal labels. I have noted many artists that cannot seem to sell their products and I think the biggest disconnect is this process of convincing people that “art” is good.

I”m blessed to have many forms of art, and for me my only difficulty is that I don’t get to share them with others enough. If I cook a beautiful meal and only I eat it, I have a little sadness. Sometimes what I do works against me. I have had numerous adults complain that I treat them like a child when teaching them something. Kids never complain that I treat them like kids.

Please don’t ask me for my best work, if you do, I”m just going to point you to this one, and by no means do I think this is my best, it’s just addressing you are looking for the high score in our judgement based society. I hope you can learn to recognize this judgement, and just accept when things are good, without needing them to be the best.