rethinks = clean slate

Gone, packed up, thrown away or put away.

I’ve never had a studio without plastering the walls and bulletin boards with samples, unfinished and finished work, sketches and printouts. I kind of like it without all the diverting agitation for a change. It quietens my mind and lets me focus on what’s in front of me instead of trying to riff on old stuff. I’m not one for crowds; now even gatherings of more than 4 can put me off quite frankly. The clammering distraction and over stimulation can happen in here too, but now it’s all whining in the basement. I can shut that door and have calm.

It’s not that i don’t like colour, pattern or embellishment. I just don’t like it anymore when they all jump on the bed, yelling and bouncing off the ceiling. Too often, i’m up there boinging with them. Time to make the bed, so to speak, get up and do things.

I went to the “extreme” of removing some of the “decor” as well–though i’m not one to think a stoodio should be decorated—-is it a working stoodio or a showplace fer gawdzsake in a magazine??????? I’d rather have room to make than fill it up with a million little tasteful tchochkes and assorted Shelf Shit. (Shelf Shit is what you buy someone who doesn’t need anything so they get a “figurine”.) The only things i need in there are the tools, materials and my window jungle. I deliberately hung Padded Cell near Lalage though, a reminder of what happens when things become obsessive…….

Like this:

It really bothers me that mess, that amount of over stimulation and distraction, and i did it to myself to boot!

I’m not about to go all Zenny and minimalist, or eschew the pleasures of colour and candy, but this is easier to deal with in a lot of ways:

Now i can Work instead of futzing around. It’s like having a clean plate to arrange the sprouts and collops, rather than trying to find any receptacle that will hold a bit of food without touching anything that is questionable (Greyman for example will use ANYTHING that is clean to spread jam or hold milk….)

I even managed to go through 5 old binders of stuff, notes, sketches and “copy-outs” that dated back 27 years! I really don’t need pages and pages of fabric conversions for baby to king size quilts, old magazine ads or scribbled lists of groceries and library books

So what’s on the table then?

Simple, spare, bare–easy to overdo, but that issue not coming up this time. Simple, spare, implied bareness and tactile.

And there’s still a small select pile of finishmes in my tubage watching couch corner.