Tidy or Not

Comparison is the thief of joy.

An oldy but a goody.

When I posted photos of my studio which were, to me, a hideous mess, I had more than one person either leave a comment or email privately to tell me how tidy my studio was compared to theirs. I get it.

When I was a young, single, 20-something, I had a two bedroom apartment and the second bedroom was such a mess that I would forbid anyone from entering. It was chaotic. Later, with too many people in a 3 bedroom house, I had to tidy up out of necessity. My personal art was put on the back burner and projects with kids took over. None of the three kids had much interest in art, so that was probably a blessing in disguise.

I have visited homes where people's art supplies and projects have taken over the whole house. The spouse of the artist usually just shrugs and says, "Well, I have my thing." That thing might be a sports car in the garage or fishing trips or whatever. If your creative life is a mess, don't worry about it, you are in good company. Francis Bacon's studio has been preserved for posterity and is a monument to messy studios. Google it for more details if you are interested in seeing it in person. Alexander Caulder's desk is also famous. It is said he had a mental note of every item and could pluck out whatever he needed, with ease.

Caulder's desk

Bacon in his studio. 

One thing I will add, however - you might consider tidying up (just once) and seeing if you actually like it. I only say this because I was nudged into tidy when I started to see clients and I ended up feeling much more creative when I rode the roller coaster of making a mess while in the middle of jobs and then taking the time to put everything back in order and starting over with the proverbial clean slate. I am a convert - but I have no issues with people who choose to stick to their natural ways.

Again - I am not trying to nudge anybody in any direction, just sharing that it is not always clear which changes are possible vs. impossible. I am surprised at the number of things I have accomplished/changed in the past decade that were things I thought were never-gonna-happens. Surprised, shocked and amazed. It has inspired me to be less stuck in my rut. But it has also caused me to put certain items into the category of never gonna happen and I mean it and we are not going to talk about it and if you keep pestering me you will regret it.

It is hard to believe that I was ever meek and mild. You can thank my kids for fixing that. Honestly - I had no idea what I was getting into. My sibling was a tiny little adult when he was born (that is what our mom said) and I imagined that I would have tiny little Donalds when I had kids. Wrong. They were half Jean and half Mr. Wilson. Big problem. But, we all survived and I am proud to be Mean Jean. Hunter actually tells me that I was not mean enough. But, he majored in reverse psychology. His minor was relaxing.

Hopefully this does not sound preachy. Bottom line - feel free to find comfort in being who you are -while at the same time - be brutally honest with yourself about which changes are truly impossible. I just read a post by a woman who looks like she must be in her 20s or 30s at the latest. She declared that she has made peace with the fact that she COULD never (WILL never) achieve the level of penmanship that she sees on InstaGram. She is wrong. I am not going to argue with her -- but I know for a fact that she is young enough to have plenty of time to improve her skills. She just doesn't know HOW. Yet. Maybe she'll figure it out.  So - be very careful about deciding when and where you are *hopeless.* Stretching -both literally and figuratively- is right up there with breathing. Maybe not an essential - but it's hard to find anyone who cautions you to "Don't stretch. Stay in one place, motionless." I think you hear that right after you go flying off a ski-jump when you are 85 years old and it's your first day on skis.

But, I could be wrong. This is just one little opinion during my morning coffee.