Clean Studio

I know I’m not alone in this practice, but I also know that others do the complete opposite… Before launching into a new series/painting/production run in the studio, I clean the space more thoroughly that a quick sweep. Yesterday, the day after returning from a relaxing beach trip, I spent a couple of hours cleaning and organizing suite 262. And, today when I arrived, it felt clean and “right.” Between now and the end of the year, I will be deep into a couple of different series, and messes will be made. That being said, I am not the artist that thrives with messy, it just doesn’t work for me. After twenty-five years of painting, studio tendencies are strong, and that is all part of the equation of my success (call it what you will).

The next few weeks will bring canvas stretching, paper cutting, wood sanding, and any number of other mess making tasks, and certainly another round of tidying up the place. The cycle goes on and on, and that’s one sure sign that the Work is getting made. Using the word “success” is strange, as I have spent much of my professional art life feeling like “success” has evaded me. There were always moments where I could put it all in perspective and claim a little bit of it, but only in the last couple of years has it settled in with me. Creating a clearer understanding of what success is has been truly helpful, and simply having a wonderful studio to clean before making more work is proof enough of “success.”

Soldier on!