So far so good

Taking a quick break to post an update. Things are progressing much faster than I’d feared. For now my plan is to work towards the goal of getting the 6′ table set up to form an L-shaped workspace, so I pretty much just worked on clearing the assorted debris off the floor. (You can see before pictures of the space shown in this photo here and here, to get an idea of how cluttered this area looked earlier in the day.) The table is now stacked pretty high with stuff, but I cleared some large items out of the room to make more space. A couple of extra large bins are being moved to the basement, the small set of shelves got relocated to the living room, and the chairs were folded and stashed in the hallway for the time being.

So while I am by no means done cleaning, I’m pretty darn pleased with how much progress I’ve made. Once that table is up I should have a nice chunk of space to start sorting things out in more detail.

Gearing up to tidy up

Before I get started cleaning I wanted to grab a few “Before” pictures. Here’s a shot of the closet in the studio… buried under a pile of artsy rubble! I need to dig it out, there are lots of fun treasures in there.

As eager as I am to uncover those treasures and start playing full time, I think today and tomorrow I need to focus on just getting the bare bones of the cleaning dealt with. In the longterm, I need the space to be where I work on art; playing, exploring and finding my muse. But in the short term I need to clear off chairs – chairs make very good tables, as an artist knows – and find places for the things that have migrated to the floors so that I can set up my 6′ folding table. My buds and I will need a nice chunk of table space and plenty of seating so that we can iron out the details of the retreat.

Check out more photos of my studio, including some older ones at other periods of messification, at my Flickr photostream. I hope to be making more updates both here and in my photostream as the clean-up progresses. But at this point I’m just procrastinating, so I’ll say sayonara for now!

Tidying and teaching

Tomorrow I’ll be working to get my studio straightened up. Not an uncommon activity for an artist – we’re not the most organized people in the world, as the demand for the Studios issue of Cloth Paper Scissors can attest – but this will be as much reacquainting myself with my studio and my supplies as it is the usual tidying up of half-finished projects.

Some of my friends from the NEATC Meetup will be visiting on Thursday, to work on plans for our first weekend retreat. I’m so looking forward to the retreat; it’s a peer-led retreat, and I’ll be running a couple of great activities. I’m eager to stretch my artistic wings learning new things at others’ workshops and flexing my teaching muscles as well. My hope is hat teaching will be part of my destiny as an artist. I love to share, and I love to learn – teaching is both.