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.