Advent Day 5–Risk falling

One of my colleagues gives credit to students who “fail.” Failing in the sense of experimenting big, trying something new that may or may not work, but really grappling with the intellectual, creative, critical or other kind of thinking–learning from it and then trying again. My students often get frustrated at me when after asking me how something might look all I can say is, “I don’t know, try it.” And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But thinking through making is an important skill for every artist to recognize that they do. What we see in our heads rarely translates the same way on paper. 

Our greatest GLORY is not in never failing, but in RISING up every time we fail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

This quote by Emerson will be the text of our monthly mantra card that we will print at PRESS tonight in honor of our new exhibit RISING. If you are in the Berkshires, please come, 5-8 pm, 49 Main Street, North Adams.

We will be celebrating the release of the first ever calendar that we’ve printed. It’s pretty wonderful…you can take a look here to learn more about it.  And check out the cover sheet.