Pack Rat
Dock at low tide, Frenchboro, Maine, Sept 2023
11 June 2024
Low tide is my favorite, even more than high tide. I love to see the shore exposed, the reflections of a dock in calm water, birds feeding at the water line. I think of low tide as a parallel to a state of being emptied of all that holds me back from making art. For example, there’s the burden of curating an odd collection of stuff, some of it goes back a lifetime.
Among the many things I’ve saved, most are not worth the space they take up. I can give them away and not ever think of them again. But there are some things, especially on paper, that I’m glad I kept: photos, letters, drawings, plans, song lyrics, notes, stories, books. Or a pressed plant between sheets of newspaper, with notes about where, when, and with whom I was when I saw that plant. I look at the dried, flattened plant and a rush of memories flood my mind. It’s a great pleasure!
However, if my art is to have immediacy, it can’t be a painstaking delineation of what went before. So there are these two aspects of my inner life: the pack rat who gets caught up in nostalgia and can’t let go of physical objects because of the memories they evoke, and the artist of today, of this moment, seeking to capture the view of light upon the land, or a bee arriving on a flower, or clouds moving across the sky.
Is there room for two opposing forces within the one person? It’s a struggle. Can I even find the space within the studio to make another painting, given the backlog of stuff that awaits my energy to sort and dispose of unwanted or outdated items?
I don’t have a bullet list of how to approach the conundrum, but if I were to hire me to be a consultant, to say “here’s what you should do, Alison, to make room for your art and downsize your pile,” then the list would have to include these steps:
Be thankful. At many times in your life, you didn’t have a place to make art. Not everyone has a studio or even a work space. Start from a viewpoint of appreciation for all you have.
Think about what’s really important to you. Write it down. Reduce the list to just a few words. Hang up a little sign with the words, where you can see them often.
Take a photo of the studio in its current condition, however bad that might seem.
Set a timer, work for 30 min., then step back and take a break in the comfy chair.
Keep doing this, repeating the steps any number of times until you can see a difference.
Try to avoid stowing unsorted things in paper bags, boxes, etc. Keep sorting and prioritizing as you go, and try to reduce the amount of stuff by 10%, 25%, or whatever you can possibly manage. Once it’s gone, don’t go get more.
Celebrate!
So, let the tide come back in, and I’ll have less to move out of the way so that I can accomplish the day’s challenge, to interpret the world through color and design.