For every time someone has stared at a blank canvas with visions of grandeur only to paint a disaster, every time someone has grasped needles to knit the perfect scarf but weaved a hopeless wad of yarn in its place and every time someone has set out to sculpt clay into true beauty and was repulsed by the result, Western students Heidi Norgaard and Abby Wilson would like to celebrate their failures.

From now until May 15, the two Viking Union Gallery coordinators will host “‘F’ It,” an art exhibit dedicated to abandoned, damaged and altogether failed artwork submissions from Western students.

“We wanted to do a show where an artist put their heart and soul into [a piece of artwork], and it just didn’t turn out how they planned,” Wilson said. “They just had to say fuck it.”

But Wilson and Norgaard said they don’t want “‘F’ It” to focus on the failure itself, but the experience gained in the process.

“Sometimes you learn more from when you fail than when you succeed,” Norgaard said. “The aspect of learning from your mistakes is very important to this show.”

To emphasize this approach, the coordinators requested a written description of what went wrong with the piece with each submission. They said the effect of seeing a failed piece of art next to the story of its demise adds depth to the exhibit.

“They compliment each other; they’re all interesting stories,” Wilson said. “[One student] wrote about making a scarf for his mom that he was really proud of, and then he tried to make another one in the same style, but it didn’t have the same meaning and emotion behind it like it did when he made the one for his mom.”

Western senior Cassie Gendlek said she has experienced similar failures during her time as an art student.

She approached Norgaard and Wilson with the idea for the exhibit near the beginning of the year.  The coordinators said they immediately loved the idea.

As a fiber-art major, Gendlek said countless art projects that began as exciting concepts and ended up as big disappointments inspired her idea.

“But that’s the process you have to go through,” she said. “Ninety percent of the projects artists make are really crappy. The other 10 percent are what you see in galleries.”

For her submission to the exhibit, Gendlek said she’s putting together a tapestry of failed and unfinished crochet projects.

“I have two baskets full of projects I feel guilty about never finishing, and I know I’m never going to finish them,” she said. “I’m tired of being mad about having shitty art, and I decided to start being happy about the mistakes I make.”

That’s the atmosphere Norgaard and Wilson said they wanted to create for this exhibit, and students were willing to submit to an exhibit where they could share and enjoy their mistakes instead of lamenting them.

About a year ago, Western junior Sarah Lloyd photographed two rolls of film without knowing that the bottom of her camera’s shutter was broken and had stuck over the lens. As a result, each photo developed with a pitch-black bottom half.

Though the photos didn’t turn out as intended, she held onto them. She said she never imagined submitting them to a gallery, but they fit within the context of “‘F’ It.”

“You’re a little less responsible for yourself if you can say, ‘Well, this sucks,’” Lloyd said. “Now we can all laugh at ourselves and see each other’s mistakes.”

But both Norgaard and Wilson said they don’t like to think of the exhibit’s submissions in terms of good or bad.  Art that “sucks” is different than art that “fails.”

As artists learn, the coordinators said, mistakes are inevitable, and a collegiate setting works as the best possible host for an exhibit that celebrates learning from mistakes.

“People put too much emphasis on grades and getting things right the first time,” Norgaard said. “If every college was open to failure, we could learn a lot more.”

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