What Does An Artist Do All Day

DAY THREE

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DAY THREE 〰️

Part of an artist’s day is taken up by thinking.  Thinking in heavily concentrated chunks.  Being present but ‘checking out’. Thinking the what if’s.  Thinking should I do this?  Thinking how can I interpret what I see in front of me.  Thinking ‘outside the box’.  Today’s thinking, the ‘checking out’ sort of activity one does when trying to do some badly needed housework chores, was centred around trying to de-clutter and minimise my collected collections of all sorts.  I had a peek at the bookcases in the hall – I have a LOT of books!  Some are up in my loft, boxed away.  A huge amount are in boxed bags in my garage.  I inherited some really old books from the Studio’s previous shop tenant who ran a second-hand bits and bobs shop.  I wasn’t looking through either the garage or loft stash.  After all I have a bad back so they can stay put for now (or so I justified to myself).  I suffer from attachment issues.  I collect and store.  I can’t seem to part with things.  Each useless or past-its-best item is saved from an immediate death because ‘I remember …..’ jumps into my head and stops me from removing the now defunct object.  I get like this particularly with books.  I understand attachment theory but it does not assist in the minimalization of my clutter.

 I slowly pushed my right hand out and randomly let it drift into one of the hall bookcases.  Right Hand drew out the first book it came to.  “Oh, that looks interesting” my checked out brain whispered internally.  “Can’t remember reading it all – perhaps I should start reading it again.”  I was starting to argue with myself at this point.  “Someone, perhaps one of the daughters, gave me that book”  and then I heard the sensible grown up part of my brain say “well offer it back to them!”.   The checked out brain retorted “well, a better idea would be to use it creatively.”  Well that was it.  The artist brain kicked in and pow!  Hit hard by a sudden urge to paint, draw, doodle on the pages.  Thoughts of gel plate printing sprung up from nowhere.  Collage maybe.  Oh yes! Let’s create!

 And so another project was started.  And so no books got sorted to give away.  And so I still have a huge collection of books.  But, I tell myself, they are made of paper.  And paper can be used to create art.  Watch this space!  Or read this book with me ……..