So I've been watching season 12 of Project Runway, one the few "Reality" television shows that I love because it involves watching designers really flesh out their process and promote or discover their signature aesthetic or voice and then put it all on the runway.
I've noticed something watching this time around that I hadn't really noticed before.
If you're lucky, there is something that you love to do that you also do really well and it's very empowering to have that validated and fed, inspired and praised.. But many of us, (me included) don't so so well being challenged, opposed or critiqued. And PR is a great place to see how various personalities react to this.
What I love love love about Tim Gunn's critiques season that I didn't notice before is that he encourages each designer to stay true to their voice and their aesthetic if they have one, regardless of the fear of what the judges might say or or being sent home.
It's easiest for to talk about the designers who I love the most. Dom Streater constructs designs that place bold prints together with an expertise that is truly amazing. She does it like she was born to. Where others are scared and feel that mixing bold prints is risky, she can see nothing else but the ways in which they speak to one another in her designs. She is playful and bold and you can see that her clothes make her very happy and that happiness is contagious. Her energy is friendly, encouraging, funny, loving and giving. Bradon McDonald is someone who seems to intuit his designs from some other realm. He has gotten stressed out on occasion about execution but never about his vision. His designs look like they come from another dimension. they are ambitious and uncompromising. I really admire that.
Helen Castillo is a designer I had time watching because although she is a good designer, when she received not so good critiques from Tim, she crumbled. She was the hardest critic of herself and she would literally become paralyzed and unable to continue. She fixated on being sent home and could see nothing else.
*sigh*
It's hard for to watch Helen I guess it's because I can relate. When I have a vision for something I want to make and the execution is perhaps more difficult than I imagine I can end up scraping everything and just become a puddle of sulky, self sabotaging self doubts that no one wants to witness. I mean it's just a big "I suck" fest. So what I'm saying is that the behavior we can't stand to see in others is often what we hate to see in ourselves or confront in ourselves and we can measure the way we treat ourselves in those situations by the way we treat others. Every time I see Helen come down on herself I want to fast forward. I get really sick of seeing it over and over again. I would rather see Dom and Bradon who do amazing work that I love and never seem to have paralyzing self doubts or take criticism to mean that they should just give up.
*sigh*
But there I go judging and editing. Helen's reaction to criticism is the reality I know well and instead of being compassionate, I choose to avoid it and move on to more pleasant things. That doesn't mean it goes away.
Making things that you love, anything, whether it be something hand crafted or mind crafted is a labor of love, blood, sweat and tears. It takes more than just talent but also more than just determination. It takes passion, discipline, risk, time management, planning, vision and most of all belief in yourself and an allowance to let yourself make mistakes without letting those mistakes define you as a failure. One of the things that usually gets to us is comparisons, comparing ourselves to others and or comparing what we've done to what we are now doing. Staying fresh and present is not always easy. But when you can find your own way to stay in the zone that inspires your creativity the most, you have to nurture it.
When I can, I try to just get myself in a place where I expect nothing but am receptive to all (usually in nature) and just see what happens. But when I'm not doing that I realize I need to ease up on Helens of the world and essentially on the Helen in me.
I've noticed something watching this time around that I hadn't really noticed before.
If you're lucky, there is something that you love to do that you also do really well and it's very empowering to have that validated and fed, inspired and praised.. But many of us, (me included) don't so so well being challenged, opposed or critiqued. And PR is a great place to see how various personalities react to this.
What I love love love about Tim Gunn's critiques season that I didn't notice before is that he encourages each designer to stay true to their voice and their aesthetic if they have one, regardless of the fear of what the judges might say or or being sent home.
It's easiest for to talk about the designers who I love the most. Dom Streater constructs designs that place bold prints together with an expertise that is truly amazing. She does it like she was born to. Where others are scared and feel that mixing bold prints is risky, she can see nothing else but the ways in which they speak to one another in her designs. She is playful and bold and you can see that her clothes make her very happy and that happiness is contagious. Her energy is friendly, encouraging, funny, loving and giving. Bradon McDonald is someone who seems to intuit his designs from some other realm. He has gotten stressed out on occasion about execution but never about his vision. His designs look like they come from another dimension. they are ambitious and uncompromising. I really admire that.
Helen Castillo is a designer I had time watching because although she is a good designer, when she received not so good critiques from Tim, she crumbled. She was the hardest critic of herself and she would literally become paralyzed and unable to continue. She fixated on being sent home and could see nothing else.
*sigh*
It's hard for to watch Helen I guess it's because I can relate. When I have a vision for something I want to make and the execution is perhaps more difficult than I imagine I can end up scraping everything and just become a puddle of sulky, self sabotaging self doubts that no one wants to witness. I mean it's just a big "I suck" fest. So what I'm saying is that the behavior we can't stand to see in others is often what we hate to see in ourselves or confront in ourselves and we can measure the way we treat ourselves in those situations by the way we treat others. Every time I see Helen come down on herself I want to fast forward. I get really sick of seeing it over and over again. I would rather see Dom and Bradon who do amazing work that I love and never seem to have paralyzing self doubts or take criticism to mean that they should just give up.
*sigh*
But there I go judging and editing. Helen's reaction to criticism is the reality I know well and instead of being compassionate, I choose to avoid it and move on to more pleasant things. That doesn't mean it goes away.
Making things that you love, anything, whether it be something hand crafted or mind crafted is a labor of love, blood, sweat and tears. It takes more than just talent but also more than just determination. It takes passion, discipline, risk, time management, planning, vision and most of all belief in yourself and an allowance to let yourself make mistakes without letting those mistakes define you as a failure. One of the things that usually gets to us is comparisons, comparing ourselves to others and or comparing what we've done to what we are now doing. Staying fresh and present is not always easy. But when you can find your own way to stay in the zone that inspires your creativity the most, you have to nurture it.
When I can, I try to just get myself in a place where I expect nothing but am receptive to all (usually in nature) and just see what happens. But when I'm not doing that I realize I need to ease up on Helens of the world and essentially on the Helen in me.
No comments:
Post a Comment