Master of My Domain

Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.

~Allen Ginsberg

In a lot of ways, my Daily Painting habit has been one of the best things I've started, ever.  I am practicing practicing practicing my craft every day. 

Malcolm Gladwell, the brilliant sociologist who has written several books on fascinating aspects of human behavior such as "Blink", "The Tipping Point", "David and Goliath", and others, says that no one becomes an expert at anything until they have spent at least 10,000 hours doing it. I don't ever expect to become an expert at painting (I am seeing my judges as fellow painters I admire. According to some of my 8 year old and 95 year old students-- as well as my children-- I'm already there!) -- but I am getting better and learning a lot and experimenting with color and technique and subject matter. 

It also feels good to throw away so much of the paper and imagery I've collected over the years for inspiration, as I go through and see where it takes me.  It's the little bit of cleaning out of the studio that I constantly battle. Every day I try to clean or organize or give away stuff in my "paper pond" so that I can better concentrate, and be able tomove around without tripping on something, or knocking something over, or hear my young students come up there to work and say, "This place is always such a mess!!". 

A few weeks ago I realized that it's not just me that's got this problem. I was at a Collage Society meeting [a little aside here: my foodie husband had the gall to make fun of this membership as he told me he was on his way to the Pickle Club, I kid you not.] and we were talking about paper and glue and canvas and board, and someone said, "I really need to clean my studio," and there were 20 or so heads nodding and "uh huhs", and someone said, "My husband is always complaining about all the piles of paper and stuff, and I finally said to him,

'For God's sake -- I do collage!!!'."

So I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that that's the way it is. There are so many things, papers, pieces of ephemera, lying in wait, to be used on some project. So many possibilities!

So the negative side of the Daily Paintings is that I'm only adding to the clutter of my studio.

Luckily, I have several places around town to hang my work, and I'm selling it as well.  Nevertheless, the additional paintings take up space quickly. I'm trying to keep them organized in boxes, and but there isn't a lot of space for (more) boxes. Also, there are some paintings that are unfinished, so are sitting around.  Others are waiting to dry.  Still more are waiting for me to paint the sides...

Feeling slightly overwhelmed by it all, I am taking a short break from painting until I can shuffle some things around. Here are a few views of precious items in my workspace, waiting patiently for their "upcycling".

I never ever tire of color chips. I have boxes and boxes of them. Sooner or later Lowe's is going to tell me to GET LOST.

I love these letters. Translucent. Remind me of ice.

Have no idea where I got them. And

naturally I don't have enough to spell anything.

I bought a huge jar of these knobs and I have

actually used a lot for Christmas ornaments.

My beloved paper file. Weighs as much as an

elephant. Papers organized by color.

sort of organized...

Paint, also arranged by color. Acrylic and oil separate.

Often called an "Inspiration Board"

Never enough paper.

I love my neat desk.