The Art of Mistakes Interview with Melanie Rothschild

Self taught artist who never thought she was very good at art.

After graduating from college she felt relaxed and had intentions of just 'playing'

She used her anthropology design references in her head to inspire her to be creative

Started off with frames that she had from her family business - designed them and sold them

Went to a few art classes and always felt like she was the worst in the class

She calls her techniques the 'Gorilla techniques' - things that she stumbled across on her own and made up

'The tool of my trade is mistakes'

Originally used dots on her frame designs to cover up the mistakes

'Mistakes for me are guide posts to ideas i never would have come up with'

I find it interesting that she talks about the idea of feeling accepted. with the encouragement of making mistakes, it allows people to feel accepted and welcome to the 'art table'. I feel like there are a lot of rules and restrictions with art which create huge amounts of pressure so the enforcement of mistakes allows people to feel more comfortable in creating art.