More Time than Money

Day 3 of my Reorganization Project:  I have gone through about 35 issues of Cloth Paper Scissors and Somerset.  That's a very heavy stack now ready for the recycling bin! And I have new folders of articles, with labels like Techniques, Christmas, Inspiration, Color Palettes.  Yes, color palettes!  I realized as I was looking at some of the art, I was responding to the combination of colors more than anything else.  I do tend to always revert to my favs of aqua/lime green/black & white.  So now I have a handy reference.  Along with what I now know about color theory, I have new options.

Another tip I came across that resonated with me, was design prompts.  When I am putting the finishing touches on something, I tend to do the same things--add dots or circles, or add text.  By selecting a random design prompt (such as add a strong horizontal, or add something sheer), I will be expanding my bag of tricks.

And I've decided to add an Inspiration Board to my studio.  After reading an article on it, and thinking about how that could help jumpstart my art, I am incorporating that into my new scheme.  But for the time being, I have more time than money, so I will continue on the course I have set, adding a list of "things to get when I have some extra $."

Also, I now have 94 colorful, artsy envelopes, made from beautiful pages of these magazines.

This first step was time-consuming, but it has set the stage for the rest of this project, and I'm so glad I started there.  Next step:  Purging--making piles of Throw Out/Recycle/Give Away/Donate.  I feel lighter already

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Nothing to Show

My camera is broken, so I have no pics to show. But that kind of sums up my whole art life lately: nothing to show. Many reasons for this: spending time at the river this summer, things happening with my adult children,the holidays, my studio being a huge mess....So now that I have more time at home, I have been wanting to get back in there. But every time I would walk in, I had this sense of dread. (If you could see it, you would know why!)

And I have been wanting to reorganize, and maybe even paint the walls, for some time now. But it has always seemed OVERWHELMING. Where to even start? Yesterday I sat down at my work table and took a good look around. Hmmm, I don't think I'll ever use those dolls or doll parts again. There's stuff all over the floor--why? Some are "future projects," but most are remnants of past projects that I've never bothered to put away. And if I love to paint, why are my paints not beautifully displayed? Oh, and look at that jumble of mediums up on that shelf. So I started jotting down ideas as I sat there.

One of the ideas was to go through my old art magazines (some as old as 3 years), and glean what I wanted to keep; recycle the rest of it. So since yesterday, this is what I have been doing. And it's the perfect way to begin! It is forcing me to organize my ideas: here are products I want to try, here are some color palettes I like, here are some techniques I want to try, here are some ideas I like....

And after a couple of days of organizing my ideas, I will be ready to tackle the physical re-organization. And to make it even more fun, I'm creating an art journal of this experience. So stay tuned for the outcome. Just like art itself, it will be a process.