Rip van Quilter

Lost time: thinking about redoing a page of my book has me pondering the reasons. Is it unnecessary perfectionism or artistic integrity? As far as I'm concerned, it can be either - and probably a number of other things besides.

There are times when a mistake shows up too late to be fixed, or when the work involved or the amount of material needed for a fix would be prohibitive. Then it can be accepted with a philosophical sigh and shrug, called an "Amish imperfection", and left that way. Alternatively, it can be declared a "design decision" and made part of the whole work, perhaps even improving the original idea. Or it can cause such a negative reaction that the unfinished piece gets put away, never to be completed.

There are times when I swallow my perfectionism and realize that nothing I make will ever be absolutely perfect. Then there are other times when I perceive that something is so wrong that it needs to be changed in order to be what I meant it to be. This is such a case. I didn't see it coming when I was working on the pages - or rather, I did have a vaguely uncomfortable feeling, and ignored it. It took the photograph - the distance create by looking at it that way - to show me what was wrong. Fortunately, though it will take several hours to redo it, it's not too late. It will be worth the extra time because it will show what the poem means to me at that point. In this case, that is necessary for artistic integrity.

Back to the drawing board...