Step Away

If you have ever seen an artist working on a painting or sculpture, you will know that moment where they emerge from working closely and intensely to step away and look at the work from a distance. That is the moment when the artist regains perspective, ensuring that the totality of the result is still what it was originally intended to be. Stepping away to regain perspective is one technique that all of us can learn from artists.

Just like an artist has to do fine, detailed, time-consuming work on the different parts of a composition, we have to spend time on the details of any project. This can be absorbing and exhilarating, and of course it is very necessary. However, it can draw our attention away from the bigger picture. When you “can’t see the forest for the trees” it is time to step back and regain perspective.

This is my first post in three weeks. Although this is not best practice in the (remnants of) the blogosphere, the time away was most valuable. I crawled out of my tech den into the bright sunshine of the real world and can now return to my keyboard with fresh eyes. A look at the world outside has shown me what new directions to take. And time with people – wonderful, diverse and ever-unpredictable people – reminded me that the glue of the Web is flesh and blood. Like the artist, I have stepped back, and can continue with clearer perspective.

Image: Artist by di_the_huntress at flickr.com