"All artists are basically very insecure.  It's all about making sure that, by the end of the day, they feel they've accomplished something.  You're making something out of nothing.  The process really helps you get over that intimidation."
Heather Kim, Troika Design Group

The blank slate is stuff of nightmares and day sweats for the human asked to make something out of nothing.

Designer/animator Heather Kim has a plan when intimidation plagues her work.  It's called process. That, and working in a rich environment where high stakes projects (network TV branding), digital technology and collaboration are the norm.

Here's the kind of intact imagination Ms Kim's workplace grants her:

"I can't really talk about color without knowing the context of it.  For instance; I love purple when it is a reflective burgundy in a wine glass or on a velvet dress, or when it is a thick crust of oil paint with lacquer on top, or even when it is a subdued lavender on dead and dried flowers but I don't like it when it is on a cheap website paired together with flat green and yellow (only textural mustard and dark purple and peacock green go together) like it was slapped on using the paint bucket tool in photoshop, or when it is on the bow tie of a clown.  So I like "Purple" but only if it is used well."
Heather Kim

But what I'd really like to understand is why an artist might be plagued by insecurity.  Is it a result of a culture where everybody's a critic, including the one doing the art?  Or, is uncertainty a sign of open mindedness?  Might excess confidence betray a lack of respect for the vastness of choice? 

Trepidation - the rude madness that enlightens our dim views.

Photo graphic Susan Weber licenced under an Attribution Non-Commercial Creative Commons licence.