The Creative Mind and Organization

Painting space

I was having a special event at my studio today and so it seemed wise to clean the place up. Which may be sort of silly as my studio is open three days a week through the summer and you sort of get what you get when you walk in. Like tomorrow I will be cutting mats and framing my sister's photographs for the International Bank Show in Raton the 12th, 13th and 14th. I have three paintings in that show and last week the studio was devoted to cutting and making frames. So the studio was messier than it needed to be and also some cleaning had to be done to be able to mat photographs.

Mat cutting table and file

So it just seemed a good idea to go the whole hog. In fact I may actually schedule these special events periodically to motivate me to clean it up. This time it even included cleaning the jute rugs and washing the tile floors because I have been gardening.

Clean rugs

But the biggest issue was the painting area in the first photo. I have been opening folding tables and painting on them and using the table to "store" paints, and pens and sketches and pencils and sketch books, etc. It was a mess. Now my grand plan for the studio has shelves to handle all the things on the paint desk but they seemed filled too. So while I was killing time for my first visitors (note: art shoppers never come before noon) I decided to tackle the shelves so I could clean the painting area.

Cleaned and organized shelves

These shelves were the biggest mess. In part because they do not roll out like the shelves where I keep my watercolors and paint mediums. Things get shoved to the back and I forget what is in there like the three packages of steel wool that is now with framing supplies. Cleaning this area out allowed me a place to put the plastic box of oil sticks, my transfer paper, paints for frames, sealants for paintings, and spray adhesives for mounting photographs and mats. In short all the stuff that had been "stored" on top of the painting area table.

Will it stay this neat and tidy? I doubt it. Tomorrow when I mat all the matting stuff will come out and take up space on the flat surfaces. And then on Monday I will be back to working on the unfinished painting currently sitting on the matting table. And at some point I need to organize the mat file and the rolling drawers on the flat file but it is a beginning. And I am fully aware that as a creative person I am not neat and organized for long.