Studio Mayhem

One area of collage materials waiting for divine inspiration.

Oh look, another area of collage materials waiting…..

I would love to blame this on some sort of disorder. I do this because I have an attention deficit disorder. I am dyslexic, so it makes things harder for me to organize. I have whatever……..The truth of the matter is that I allow myself to wander. I wander from painting to painting. I wander from collage to watercolor. I wander from subject to subject, and I like the wandering. My biggest problem, if we want to call it that, is that I am self-indulgent when it comes to the creative process and I LOVE that I am. It leads to some glorious discoveries!

However, every once in awhile I have to clean up the studio. My self-indulgence leads to quite few "blue" verbal out bursts, several bags of garbage, and more than a couple of hours vacuuming, dusting and mopping.

Oh well, at the end of the day I really wouldn't have it any other way.

Studio Time

This is a picture of my studio. It is fairly neat and clean. Well organized and very functional. The skylights provide great light and there is clearly enough room to work on several canvas at the same time.

Over the past several moths I completed the canvases that are visible. As I finished them, I also worked on other pieces of art. While I was working I was creating small areas of disarray. Mind you they were small, but there were several of them. No flat surface has escaped at least one, if not 3 or 4 pile os papers, pencils, tubes of color, etcetera,  etcetera,  etcetera……….

So yesterday in my infinite wisdom I tore everything asunder. Which is why I am sitting here with my cup of coffee delaying the inevitable task of reorganizing, culling, cleaning, and eventually , blessedly, getting back to painting.

New beginnings.......

The tools of the trade...

a good pair of old scissors...

canvas pliers and a staple gun...

and a large table to work on.

It always takes a few hours for me to complete stretching a few new canvases. In part because I always  have to hunt for more staples! The process is not complicated, but does have quite a few steps and requires a large, clean area to work on.

Showing Up

I remember listening to a student who was complaining about the lack of inspiration that they felt was and that this was the reason they could not complete the assignment. The instructor stood there giving his full focus to the student. Nodding while they went on at length about how they were just not feeling it. When the student had finished their diatribe the instructor took in a long breath and told them in a reverent tone "Well then, you must never leave the studio because you do not want to miss that moment when the Muse is upon you." He then turned and walked quietly away.

Occasionally the spirt does strike without warning, however for quite a few of us we invite it in. I have created several little Muse call rituals myself. I won't bore you with the details, but the biggest one is showing up. I show up in the studio and know, Muse or not I am going to be there for a minimum of one hour. So I may have to sweep, rearrange paints, clean palettes or what ever until it arrives.

There are days when it doesn't arrive. Those are spent stretching canvas. Filing paperwork. Throwing away things that are no longer of use. But more often that not, I pick up a pencil or a brush and make a mark. Then another, and then I find that I have been transported and painted for several hours, and this would have never happened it I hadn't shown up.