The Pressure of Preciousness

Your work is worthy before it is “perfect”. That is enough.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

It’s interesting how much we have the ability to be the force that hinders our lives and experiences. There is nothing wrong with being intentional in the way we choose to navigate the tools of our craft, within who we choose to share our dreams. The challenge introduces itself when that intention gets coated in what I feel is an unclear/facade of ‘preciousness’ that we begin to sabotage ourselves. 

I find this to be so true in my own life as I naviagate projects that I am showcasing and putting out. I have such a love for my craft that I would never want to sacrifice the integrity of my works in an attempt to chase relevance, an expected schedule, or a social benchmark. 

Vashira and Tashira Hargrove, Suffolk, New York, Photo © Mary Ellen Mark, 1993

There surely is a foundation for this perception of preciousness. I’ve spoken about this to many friends and creatives and I’ve come to realize that so many of us were never poured into and shown belief in our artistry growing up. Growing up with young, Black parents who struggled to make ends meet to support us as a family, I can only imagine the last of their interest/(survival)needs, were to hear me talk about wanting to be an artist at age 8. Would it have been nice to be championed in this desire, in my rawest and earliest forms of dreaming? Of course, but that just wasn’t my reality. However, I believe that given our circumstances financially my mother always poured into me that I could be a lawyer, a doctor, or ‘anything’ (fixed to financial success). I believe those to be her dreams, and to be what she wished she was poured into her growing up, not realizing at the time that what younger her and I both needed at that time was to be seen and heard. I wanted to be an artist. And I made it happen. 

I do not hold any regret in my mother pouring into me her dreams. Just as mine needed a home, so did hers. We champion cheers that were taught to us, perfecting them until they echo into the ears of children murmuring their truths.

Amari & Amarion, Brooklyn, New York — Deon Hinton, 2024

So many of us have been awarded gifts that our parents were not, the freedom of choice, the freedom to dream. Rather socially, racially, economically, and systematically, our parents oftentimes were plucked from their seasons of learning to dream. This also results in our parents not knowing how to hold space, language, and gentleness for our dreams. We become our own support systems. In being our own support system, we have had to be the utmost serious about ourselves. We have to be our deepest advocates. We adapted to being ones to cradle our dreams with full care. So we begin to militantly show up and preserve ourselves and our craft. 

I’ve become too precious in my approach to my craft and creating. There was a point when I began to realize that the grip that I had surrounding my level of greatness in a project began to suffocate the work and never allow the life intended for them to ever be met by who they were meant to. I began to realize that waiting for projects to be “ready” 1. allowed me to hold a lack of accountability to soft deadlines and 2. began to stunt my growth as an artist. You do not grow as an artist putting out “perfect” work, you grow as an artist in the presence of humility. Your work is worthy before it is “perfect”. That is enough. 

• I feel like some of the bravest people on this earth are children. There’s a sense of confidence within who we are at that time, with what we want to be when we grow up, with how we see the world as massive, yet still attainable. I often miss that kid.  — And as much as I am working in my adult life to be the person younger me needed, I find it so warming that I find comfort in admiring little Deon.

  

  STOREFRONT LOFT, New York.

Ideas never fully belong to us.

I once heard the idea that ideas never fully belong to us. It’s no secret that procrastination, rather due to a root of fear or success, does not foster an environment for creativity and ideas to flourish. An idea that finds you dormant and unwilling to, not only acknowledge its beauty, but also to act on it will get passed on and find a new home within someone who will come to cherish it more. I feel we’ve all experienced this in one way or another. Maybe stemming from school to our later adulthood in a creative sphere. As we learn to meet these ideas with a warm welcome instead of ownership, we then can disarm our ego in perception and release these ideas that never fully even belonged to us and allow what’s fully ours to find our palms. 

I had a sit down with and this is what I lined out for myself, and maybe I extend a page in hand to you here:

It doesn’t have to be perfect, to be worthy.

You’re ready. Yes right now. 

May you be intentional, but not too precious.

City of God by Fernando Meirelles, 2002

Holding gratitude for your time, mind, and stillness. Thank you.

I hope you’re well.

D.