My room was always messy. It drove my mom nuts. It was mostly the books…books everywhere. I suppose that was the first indicator that I had an inquisitive mind. I discovered very young that I could learn things from books. I could learn to knit, to quilt, to crochet. As I got older I found books on painting, brochures teaching macrame, magazines all about cake decorating. And then there were the cookbooks…the glorious cookbooks. The messes grew. They were no longer confined to piles of books everywhere. They became boxes of fabric, baskets of yarn, tubs of paints. The messes followed me into my first house and filled every corner and nook. Then I got married.
His messes mated with my messes and flowed into his son’s messes. The messes went forth and multiplied until our home (and garage) was one jumbled mass of mess. At that point the top of my head blew off.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I knew that buried in all that mess was my lost sense of creativity. I just knew that if I excavated deeply enough I would be reunited with my muse. And so began the great de-messing of 2010. As we mercilessly divested ourselves of things we’d forgotten we possessed, we unearthed the treasure-trove of paints, brushes, papers, metalwork tools, yarns, and yes, books. In doing this, we recovered space. Space to dedicate to art, to creation, to new messes.
The first step in ensuring that I do not let the fear of making a mess keep me from creating something each and every day is the creation of this blog. I am committing to posting daily Monday through Friday as a way to keep the creative process moving forward. My friend Brandy, who is this amazing artist, inspired me to start painting again and now has inspired me to commit to this. Thanks Brandy. Check out her blog at http://brandyink.typepad.com/brandyink/. You won’t regret the visit.
Just Make a Mess 