Blog

It is the last of summer, with autumn arriving at the end of the week.  The weather still thinks it is summer, so we are still enjoying the lush, smothering heat and humidity that the South is blessed to have.  Working outside on plein air art is punishing, and my focus these days is on commission work and clearing out my abundant basement. With the final commission completed and delivered, it was time to enter the realm of dust and spiders and get to work.

The basement is a bugaboo that has been hanging around for years.  When we moved here twenty years ago, I had visions of a large workspace, a place for every discipline in my art arsenal.  Gradually, as most basements evolve, this corner was filled and that corner was filled with the things I thought we couldn't live without, or rather couldn't live without then!  Some boxes moved from our former home, and remained as they were.  Little and large time capsules containing holiday cards, thank you notes for babies now in college, school pictures left over from the package they make you buy, flyers of events I can barely remember now.  Scattered among the wreckage was art -- watercolors, pastels, a charcoal study, a scratchboard drawing tinted with ink.  It was a daunting, and taunting task that I finally faced.

The dumpster came on Monday...yes a real 15 yard dumpster, the kind with doors that you can walk through and throw away almost anything you want. And so it began.  I worked by myself, hauling box after box out...barely thinking about them, because I knew if I stopped, I would be bogged down with memories.  So I kept at it.  I knew some of the boxes were unneeded items, and they were easy to toss.  The ones with children's pictures, notes to a new mom, children's clothing that brought back images of little hands and faces, and other sentimental things were harder to toss.  Both the kids had said, "we have everything we want to keep"...so out things went, even my old love letters, and reminders of a sixteen year old girl who was ready to face the world.  Amazingly, it was very free-ing, and I realized I didn't need to keep all that to remain who I was. They were just signposts along the way.

In all of it, works of art struggled to the surface.  Most were works on paper, and I found old images created near the beginning of my art career.  Colorful, fresh, and full of promise.  Some were unremarkable (you can't keep everything), but the ones that shone with inspiration were spared and carefully added to my bin of current work.  Beautiful flowing charcoal drawings of figures were pulled, and a summer's study of horse anatomy and movement saw the light of day again.  Notes from workshops long past were saved, and refreshed.  Failed works were justly destroyed, but I learned again what they had to teach as I threw them away.  

By Friday, the clearing was done, not because I had thrown all I intended out, but because the dumpster was FULL.  I'll continue to throw out, only smaller garbage bags going forward.  The bulk of everything that needed to go is gone.  My basement studio is full of art now, old and new, and I feel artistically cleansed..ready to pursue new ventures.  I have plenty of work to use with studio shows and online sales.  I have cleared and ready space to create in.  It's a new beginning.  My time resting in the shallows is coming to an end.  I'm prepared, seasoned and excited about the future.  Time to shoot the rapids.