I hope this week was enlivening for you. I can hardly believe it is June already. This week was strange with the holiday. Plus this coming week my teaching schedule changes up again, so I am all turned around. I also finally am transitioning back into some of my art projects that have been on the back burner.
The picture up above is a polymer cast out of a silicone mold I made from a real cicada. It isn't exactly perfect, but I was happy with the level of detail that I was able to achieve. Believe it or not there was no tutorial online about how to mold an insect body. I looked, if I had a proper camera I would have filmed my process. For some reason I keep coming up with questions that google has yet to have the answers for. As happy as I am with the results, I think I can do better next time.
The curse of perfectionism is a difficult one to overcome. It is probably responsible for more than half of my procrastination tendencies. I keep wanting everything to run smoothy and get it right the first time. It took me several years to finally produce this cicada positive. Now true, some of that time was pondering the problem of how to mold something so delicate and learning about the process and materials of mold making, but I have had the materials I ended up using for over a year now. The only thing that has kept me from doing it is the worry over screwing it up. I even planned to meet with a friend who had worked in molds. but I finally just bit the bullet one day and decided now is the time.
When we sit and wait for the stars to line up we can end up missing out. I am all for people picking their moment, but at some point you just have to go for it or give up. This simple (or actually not so simple) mold was symbolic of finally emerging. Just like the cicada emerges from it's old exoskeleton and unfolds it wings to take flight there comes a time where there can be no more holding back. The cicada sleeps within the earth for years before emerging to fly free, which is kind of what many of my goals have been doing. They haven't been sleeping because the time wasn't right, but because while they slept they could remain a dream without the imperfections of life.
Why am I telling you this? Well it is easy to stagnate when you get bitten by the perfectionism bug. There is always an excuse why now is not the perfect time. Sometimes we seem to be waiting for someone to come along and help. People can be great assistance, but ultimately it is us who must crawl up from our hibernation into the sunlit world. When a butterfly exits the cocoon it is a messy and time consuming process, but it has to do it on its own. If you touch the wings or try and help it, then it will never fly. We too must muddle through our own mess if we ever want to transform our lives and ourselves. Life is not an orderly process, nor is it something that can be perfectly orchestrated. So this week if there is something you've been putting off starting maybe you should just decide to jump in, even if you don't have all the pieces. You might make a mistake, you might make a mess, but you will have begun.
Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle
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