Michaelangelo’s Famous Failures

This past summer, I went on a trip to Italy. We took a day trip to the city of Florence and saw

Michaelangelo’s David. He was magnificent! To get to David, we walked down a large hall, flanked on

either side by blocks of marble with half-finished human forms carved in them. They stood out against

their neighboring artworks as clunky and harsh. When I first saw them, I wondered what sort of tragic

story they told, but they didn’t have one. They were just unfinished- and on purpose! As I was looking

at these unfinished pieces, I heard Friedman in my head saying “This is a process class, not a product

class.” In ESP 252, I struggled to show my process in class because I’d been embarrassed by my

failures.

I gazed up at the half-finished figures trapped in marble and grappled with the fact that Friedman had

hijacked my vacation. I realized that the pieces were all demonstrative of Michaelangelo’s creative

process. From a technical standpoint, they’re failures because they’re incomplete. From a creative

standpoint, they are important steps Michaelangelo took to reach his end goal.

Failure is an integral part of the creative process. If we don’t fail, we don’t innovate. My experience with

Michaelangelo’s failures encouraged me to document and celebrate my own. I figure if he can have

failures so great that they’re viewed by hundreds of thousands of people every year, then I can put my

failures in my little process deck.

Name: Jamie Ellen Ripperger

Year: Junior

Major: Theatre, Arts Management & Arts Entrepreneurship

Co-major: Entrepreneurship

Hometown: Waynesville, Ohio

Fun Fact: I’ve been on a moose tour in New Hampshire. We saw eight moose!!