Happy Mistakes

I have a friend, Greg Martin, (www.lumartingalleries.com) who is also an artist. He has a concept which he shared with me called making a "happy mistake." This idea initially came up when something went wrong with one of my abstract paintings. And he said, maybe I would learn something or create a new type of art, now that I had to fix my mistake. At the time, it definitely made me feel better, but I didn't actually create anything new and unique from my "mistake."

A month or so ago, I decided to try gold leaf on a painting. Gold leafing is a 3 step process. Sealing the gold leaf is the third step in the process. Well, the sealant for the gold leaf had dried up, so I couldn't use it. I looked around my studio, found another form of sealant, and put it on the gold leaf. The next morning I came back, and realized that some of the painting and the gold had tarnished. At first I was a little irritated, because gold leaf in pristine condition is so pretty. But then I realized, that from an abstract painting point of view, having variations in the leafing was actually better. And is something that makes the paintings very unique and original. With no way to exactly replicate one, even if I make multiples of the same basic concept. This was indeed a very "happy mistake."

Have any of you had similar happy mistakes?

For another look at the making of art see Step Back