Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Order from Chaos

Flylady (http://www.flylady.com/) says that you can't organize clutter.  You have to get rid of it.  She's right.  And last weekend it was time to clear some of the clutter in my studio.  I don't know about you, but there are times I really want to work but the amount of visual noise surrounding me snuffs out any creativity that may be lurking.  Even if the idea is close to the surface the stuff just drowns out any chance to get it out.  So I cleaned and organized and threw out.  I found that I have an amazing assortment of papers that will accept all kinds of mediums, a really excellent group of images, both mine and from others, to study and play with, a lot of information on anatomy in addition to the books on that subject which is already in my library, notes from classes and workshops, old work which looks pretty good, and probably a bit too much furniture.  I'm not ready to move the furniture, but everything else got filed and placed in their places.  And then the most amazing things happened.  Some girlfriends came for a visit and one of them told me about a technique she uses using watercolour and permanent inks.  And because I had cleaned up, I knew exactly where to find paper that would be perfect for that kind of project.  And then someone gave me old canvases that had been painted on but still perfectly good to repaint over and I have the space for that too.  And an old photograph of a potential painting that I had been trying to paint for a couple of years now and I'm probably cabable to do it now.  So here is the message.....While it may seem like it's procrastination and not very creative to clean, it opens up all kinds of possibilities.  So I'm off to explore the possibilites.

4 comments:

  1. love your message. i also remember reading once that stuff isn't clutter until it stops moving. it's the STAGNATION of the objects that creates the problems, more than the stuff itself. but it's the eternal challenge: which stuff is valuable enough to keep, which should move on. thanks liz!

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  2. I love the idea that, "it's the stagnation of the objects". That is such a powerful concept. Really good. I will be pondering that one.....

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  3. I for one hate clutter, but somehow I can't seem to get rid of it entirely. The periodic cleaning is wonderful, I agree, but sometimes, for me, I need to stay organized for extended periods (i.e., don't bring in new clutter) in order to feel truly free of it all. Thanks for reminding me that it's time to clear out my "junk drawer" again.

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  4. Congrats on the blog thing here. You must have decluttered just to get it rolling. I have yet to get that far. I admit I'm envious......

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