Beauty in Waiting

How artists turn waiting into art.

I waited on a girl I liked in high school named Jenna for years after I first asked her out… I hope she may have finally come around.

Waiting is a concept that most of us struggle with. Whether it's waiting for that next meaningful project, a response from someone, or for our work to be released, waiting can be a challenge. However, artists and innovators have shown time and time again that waiting can lead to greatness. Some of the most famous books, films, and paintings have been created during periods of waiting, which should come as a comfort to those who find themselves in the same situation.

Edvard Munch painted ‘The Scream’ as he was waiting for medical treatment after suffering from a mental breakdown.

The Noguchi Coffee Table, designed by Isamu Noguchi in 1947, was also created during a period of waiting. Noguchi was waiting for a commission to create a sculpture for a garden in Mexico City, but the commission fell through. He then used the materials that were intended for the sculpture to create the now iconic coffee table.

Rodin created ‘The Thinker’ while waiting for inspiration for his next project.

Alice Neel had spent nearly her entire life with a vast body of work that went unnoticed until the 1970s when feminist art historians began to reassess her work, she then gained wider recognition in the last years of her life with intimate portraits made of her friends such as Andy Warhol.

Katsushika Hokusai created The Great Wave off Kanagawa while waiting for a slow publisher to release a set of his prints. 

The beauty of waiting is that it can lead to a masterpiece. Leonardo Da Vinci worked on The Last Supper while waiting to get paid by a client. Freddie Mercury wrote Bohemian Rhapsody while Queen was taking a break between albums, hoping to create a song that would take him and the band to worldwide fame. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter was rejected by numerous publishers, and Albert Einstein's theories were largely dismissed for years. Michael Jordan famously did not make his high school basketball team, but he didn't let that setback define him and he waited for the right opportunity to show the world that he had something unique to offer.

I’m just learning that, perhaps, the best kind of waiting takes work. 

These are all examples of people who used that often frustrating period of time to work, create, and innovate. 

Waiting can take many forms. We wait for love, for opportunity, for things to finally function the way they should. Scientists wait for solutions that may never come in their career, but their waiting is not in vain.

Waiting takes work.

Even when we don't know what's coming next, there's something we can do. We can use this time to prepare, to prototype, to experiment. For some, like Da Vinci, creating was a way to pass the time while waiting for payment. For others, like Einstein, it was a way to continue exploring and refining their ideas. For me, most of my waiting is spent reading, writing, and prototyping.

The waiting period may be frustrating, but it can also be an opportunity for growth and creation. Maybe what we make during this time of uncertainty and frustration will end up being some of the most meaningful work of our lives. Maybe what we make in the innocence of our frustrating period of waiting will actually be some of the most meaningful work.

---

🐚 Read more thoughtfully created articles here

🍒 Let’s be internet friends, please! @ jennaisfeeling

🍉 Shop colorful prints at feeling design lab

🪩 Read the writers’ love story. Hint: we get married omg!

🫖 Shop Color Theory Tea

🪄 Get more inspiration