Unfinished Business

There is something  honest about unfinished projects. 

Perino del Vaga, "Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist"

An unfinished work is a permanent work in progress; rather than a definitive statement, the scaffolding for the rest of the project remains without a finished ending. A painting that has the sketches drawn around it with only a portion brought to fruition or a book that stops mid-sentence—they exist perched on the edge of potential but can never be completed. 

Who hasn't abandoned a few projects? I am a big fan of hobbies. I enjoy handcrafts, a statement that equates to a few finished crafts atop a mountain of unused textiles, and there are countless word documents I have left unwritten, vulnerable to the same detection of internal logic perceivable in any other artistic venture. 

We leave ideas unfinished for a multitude of reasons: loss of interest or passion, forgetfulness, busywork. Upon rediscovering them, the fine layer of dust somehow makes them inaccessible. No longer the person who embarked on the project, there is seemingly no use in finishing it. 

But looking at unfinished work from others is a reminder that there is still value in applying yourself, even if it remains only an attempt. This Artland article shows an array of abandoned artwork, and if you're interested in reading, Electric Lit's "Unfinished Business" series covers a new piece of unfinished literature each month. 

Jacques Villon "La Parisienne (10)"

I recently completed a book, "Mount Analogue", which was self-described as a "Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidian Adventures in Mountain Climbing". It was exceptionally short (though an interesting read), and ended mid-sentence. The characters were poised at the bottom of a mountain, ready to climb, but stalled forever by the interrupted ending. 

Reading it made me think of the last project I left unattended. The last word I wrote before closing the document. Though my examples are related to artists, they can relate to any other venture or goal left behind in the past year.

Trying again, as cliche as it may sound, really is worth more than nothing. The new year isn't upon us just yet, but it is around the corner. Before preparing to become a new person, there is yet unfinished business from this year or even years prior. Finish a project, make the old new again, all the same but reborn in a different light.

Comment if you have any goals you want to revisit!