Organizing, Organizing

My normal work spaces usually end up becoming a mess.  I pull things from everywhere, stack them everywhere, and gradually the actual space I work in becomes ever smaller.

I think most artists fall into this trap.  I've not met anyone yet who really is so neat in their working process that their space stays orderly while creating something.

Some of us leave our work areas that way.  I've usually been guilty at that.  What happens, though, is that I stare at the mess and feel disinclined to do anything in the space - because it's so cluttered and messy.

I'm sure you guys know that feeling all too well.

In an effort to clear out mental and physical cobwebs, I decided to try to reorganize the painting area that I had worked so hard to put together about 2 months ago.  I haven't used the area very often BECAUSE OF THAT MESS.

So this is the before picture, taken when I was working on the Art Challenge abstract assignment

As you can see, there's really not much space to do anything.  Nothing is placed neatly.  Keep in mind that my space is constricted anyway, and you can see in the background the tubs I need to put excess supplies in, as well as the shelving system I use to keep things I use more frequently at least somewhat visible.

So on Sunday I decided something had to give.  There were projects I wanted to work on, and the clutter was getting me down.

One of my first tasks was to organize the canvas panels and watercolor paper

(People think I have way too many small bins and containers - when I do projects like these, they're vital).  The bin is at the right end of my table, pushed against the wall.  By the way, more canvases and paper got stuffed into this bin.

In the process of reorganizing things, one finds things that don't belong - like these

Necessary but in the wrong place.  The tape has been moved into the collage area, although the cloths stayed on the table.

Things were still messy midway but I was making progress - really

I had to figure out where things worked best and readjust containers and storage.  By the way the small plastic containers you see in the foreground are perfect for water and small items that I need to stash temporarily.

One final task was to figure out what to do with my stencils.  Previously they lay flat on a shoe box top

This doesn't work at all, as you might imagine.  When I'm searching for the right stencil everything gets shifted, falls off the top...well, you can guess the rest.

The answer?  Yet another bin, a small one that's just right

Why am I so excited about this particular thing (and also the bin where I put the canvases)?  Because they're simple solutions to what I thought were difficult problems.

That was just about the last task to straightening up the mess, and here's the result

It may still look like a mess, but trust me - it's way better than before.  

Now I really don't have much of an excuse to not sit down and paint.  But I'm sure I'll find one.

later,
lin