Interview with an Artist: Alison McPherson
the closer I am to finishing something, the more I ruin what it could potentially have been if I didn’t finish it.
ANGIE: Do you have any thoughts on why art is often left unfinished?
ALISON: When I draw, it’s like something is both intoxicating me and pulling me along with its momentum. I stop when that feeling stops.
ANGIE: Do you feel like you usually finish your creative writing projects?
ALISON: The shorter ones, yes. The longer ones, never. And finish isn’t really that set in stone. It’s more “presentable”. I might go back to it later.
ANGIE: Do you think there is something in you that resists completing the project on some level? My friend Mitch and I were talking about how finishing a project sometimes feels like accepting a death.
… an anticlimactic death
ALISON: I feel that way with more complex pieces. It’s very much reminiscent of Lost in Translation. Sometimes the potential of a piece is more exciting than the execution and the closer I am to finishing something, the more I ruin what it could potentially have been if I didn’t finish it.
artwork by Alison McPherson
Alison’s Blog: http://boastingsquidsandolivehomages.wordpress.com/
The Show Tell Project 