One Small Thing

Summer Pierre is a cartoonist I have admired for a few years now after I discovered her on Instagram. I love her style and the fact that she focuses on autobiographical cartoons/graphic novels. Her skills of observation make even the most mundane environment or everyday task seem whimsical and endearing, new and interesting. In a way, now that I think about it, she sort of reminds me of an illustrated version of the novelist Elizabeth Strout, whose novel Olive Kitteridge blew me away, namely due to her sublime ability to describe everyday people in the most interesting and complete ways.

These two creative women remind me that anyone who, in any capacity, can take the ordinary and make it feel extraordinary and wonderful (literally, fill me with wonder), has a gift to be treasured and appreciated. Anyone can make a labyrinth or flying saucer seem remarkable. But try tackling something like the kitchen sink. If you can make that seem novel to me in a way that's both relatable and refreshing, my hat's off to you. And probably my credit card.

Oops, I've wandered a bit.

So Summer Pierre hosted a comics workshop yesterday via Zoom from her home in upstate New York. It was fun and made my brain hurt. You try drawing a cat in three minutes, then one minute, then 30 seconds, then 15, 10, and lastly 5. These are called repetition drills. They get your brain to distill your subject down to its very essence because, Summer says, comics rely on the essence of how things look, not really how they actually look.

My "cat in three minutes". You do not want to see the five second version. Trust me.

Apart from the actual comic drawing instruction, though, I also got a lot of value from what Summer said about the creative process. This is really what I wanted to get to today. At the very start of the class, Summer said something that just about made my head explode: "The hardest thing in any creative endeavor is finishing." Ka-pow! (That's a comic term, by the way.)

"The hardest thing in any creative endeavor is finishing."

Honestly, though, how true is that statement?! How many of us (me) have a long list of ideas and/or a long list of half-finished projects. How many times have I become so frustrated with something only half-finished that I trash it. Why do we (I) do this? And boy oh boy does it hamper the ambition to do something new. And now we (I) enter a viscous circle of starting, getting frustrated, quitting. I think this applies to any work, be it writing, art, music, a sport, making a piece of furniture, baking, etc. etc. Apply to anything where you might be expected to think and create and do. Apply and repeat.

But, if we focus on the completion, it breaks the cycle. I frequently get stuck on something because half-way in--horror of horrors--it's not yet perfect. (Why we demand perfectionism from ourselves half-way through something is a huge topic for another time but it's so annoying, right?) Summer has a balm to sooth this sore: "It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be true."

Ka-pow again.

And so, a challenge: practice completion, Summer says.

"It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be true."

So then a swell of ambition rises in our hearts and we burn to get started and to finish and to do and. . . but there are so many things. So many ideas. Where to start, how to choose, how do I know when I'm finished, how to be satisfied . . . and under the Wave of Overwhelmishness I am dragged again. (Yes, overwhelmishness. My word. Mine.)

The Wave of Overwhelmishness. Not as big as you thought, right? Doesn't take much. Source: unsplash.com

But here Summer saves us again. "Set a minimum each day," she says. "One small thing a day. Promise yourself that. A lot grows from this."

One small thing a day. That's it. Think about it. Every Monday, I have a list of all the things I want to read and write and draw for the week. And it makes me fret. And I maybe get two things on the list sort of accomplished over the course of five days. Sort of. But what if I focused on one small thing a day? And better yet, frame it as a promise to myself? How's that for a positive spin?

I like this way of thinking. I like it a lot. I'm going to try it. Thanks, Summer.