clean & organize my studio

it’s crazy – we were having a party and my husband had bought me a little labelmaker christmas a year ago …. let me tell you – I never knew I had so many art supplies.

I learned about myself that when I get an idea – the first thing I want to do is buy supplies. Whether I ever use them or not depends on how much energy the shopping trip yanks out of me.

So my advice – go though EVERYTHING. Throw LOTS of stuff away that you know deep in your gut you’re never going to use. And sweep the floor. You’ll feel like a million bucks and be able to find ANYTHING. Don’t goto the container store – use gift bags on shelves – much prettier and cooler and disposble if it gets raggy! Then you can coordinate new bags with your studio!

GO TEAM!

now … to get my husband to tackle his workbench

my office is in the space more commonly used as a dining room. a friend suggested i move the desk to face the window and now i face a beautiful tree which houses a little squirrel family. i watch them sleeping in a little hole while i work. one big huge important change was getting rid of the huge monitor that was old and scratched up. i do a lot of photo editing so now i am enjoying a flat screen lcd monitor and its slim shape. i fought with the idea of making this purchase, but it was a really great decision.

also, i built a shelf for cds that faces a pretty bookshelf. the balance in the room is very good for my scattered mind! i’ve also brought a few plants into the office, since i now have the space to do so!

it’s fairly organized, and kindof clean. needs a few hours of attention, tho.

i am working on this eternally. i have to get this finished before the end of August, cos i am moving to a different state to pursue an MFA in Photography!

hopefully i can get a real handle on this in the next 6 weeks and complete this goal!

i have been working my butt off doing this on weekends for about 5 months! it’s looking better, but still has a long way to go. i have emptied out seven 23 gallon trash bins and packed up 5 large storage bins! still going!

My desk is spit-spot clean with nothing on it except the computer. My closet is organised with a dresser that I took from Sasha’s room. All of my fibre is organized. My book shelves are half bare and need to be organized a wee bit more. All in all I condsider this task done… done in time for Christmas and done in time for the start of school! Yay!

i am sitting in my studio as i type this. i am sitting here with my laptop wedged into a cleared space on the desk. there is a literal pile of magazines/slides/cards/graphic projects in progress/invites/tax forms/mini digital prints/sketchbooks beside me. i think i am going to tackle that first.

this desk was almost pristine 6 months ago. my last year of college was truly life-sucking, and yet fun! this is the mess left behind.

okay, enough procrastinating. i’m going in!

cover me.

i have what many artists would kill for. a studio space. an entire room, one of the largest in the house, dedicated soley to my art stuff.

why do i not use it? it is SO PACKED with 5 years worth of art school supplies that there are no available surfaces to use. it is literally full of supplies/books/works in progress.

i can hardly move around in there due to stacking of boxes and canvas and old computer equipment which is evil (gateway sucks).

i suck at cleaning. i am SO BAD at it. i can organize like a type A when it comes to online webspaces and my computer folders. my studio? a mess. total and complete.

now my boyfriend is movin in and we have NO PLACE to put his stuff. my bedroom is the tiniest room in the house. i may have to switch the bedroom for the studio. which is sort of laughable, if you have seen how much stuff is in the studio.

sort of at a loss with it right now. it is seriously standing in the way. i think if i had a team of four organized friends, we could put a dent in it. argh.