Try

"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try."
- Beverly Sills

I have been told that although Beverly Sills may have said this, someone else said it first.  I don't care - I just like the sentiment.  It particularly applies to me at this time in my life, in many ways.  I am trying new things, and I am not afraid to fail.  There is no failure - everything is a learning experience and even if you don't succeed to the level you wish you had, that doesn't mean you failed.  If you can learn something from the experience, how can you count it as a failure?

That being said, what have I learned from this piece? 

It certainly did not suceed in the way I hoped it would.  I see a flower in this painting, but I also see something else, and it is that something else that keeps it from being the success I wanted.  There is something Mapplethorpe-esque here.  Maybe that should be a new series....