emwil

[emwil]

Untitled Abstract

Untitled Abstract. Acrylic on canvas. 12" x 16." (An old painting unearthed from the closet I'm de-cluttering)

A personal ramble on my de-cluttering efforts because I'm stoked that I'm FINALLY getting my 'clear out the art supply and clutter closet' task done after 4 years of living in my home!

RE: my previous post; I've now completely cleaned out the closet containing a decades-worth of old artwork, overflow supplies, and (frankly) trash/scraps. Things in this closet have moved with me from place to place with me for the past DECADE without ever being properly sorted. Over time, thinking about going through these things became very emotionally-daunting to me.

When I go about a large-effort organization/de-cluttering project, I designate a 'workspace' to do the organizing and put down a big painters tape grid on the floor. I like to call it tic-tak-toe style, lol! Everything is now in the middle of my studio floor. Trash has been thrown away. Items to be donated are sorted and moved to my car. Items that need to be moved to different rooms are in their own bins and placed in the rooms they belong in. For example, I found several hair accessories and scrunchies.. those are in a 'bathroom box' and tools such as screwdrivers and hammers are in a 'garage' box. Now all that remains in the studio are the things that belong in there!

I'm now going through the studio and getting it properly organized. When this is complete, I'll go room-to-room and sort through the boxes of found items that belong in those spaces. This method has helped me feel less overwhelmed with the full project and stay focused on completing one thing at a time.

What are some of your go-to techniques for tackling organization projects?

xo Em

[emwil]

It's been a while

An old drawing of mine from the doom-and-gloom closet:

Untitled. White and Black pastel on green paper. 24" x 36."

As I look around my usually kept studio space, now thrown into chaos with my latest round of de-cluttering efforts, I think to myself that this is a good place to start. To pick up where I left off. To symbolically and physically open back up sketchbooks that have been collecting dust for a good decade. It's scary and intimidating to come back and to face these images, but it's a start.

I have now lived in my current home for four years. It's been a new chapter in my life with many challenges. One of the first things I did when we moved in was designate my studio space - a lovely room at the front of the house with the best natural lighting.

I set up my easel and my drawing desk and excitedly hung pegboard on the wall where I organized my most frequently-used supplies. I was going to spend so much time in this space creating! In contrast, the overflow supplies and previous artwork I've packed from place to place were hidden away in the spare bedroom's closet, precariously stacked not dissimilar to a wobbling Jenga tower. This dreaded closet became my closet of monsters.

But this week, I did it. I opened the closet. And it's now empty. The contents are strewn across my studio floor. The (usually tidy) studio that's at the front of the house. In plain view. And I'm making my way through the sludge.

The best way I've come to describe the odd disconnect between my sunlight studio space and the doom-and-gloom closet of my past artistic endeavors... is as an art-identity-crisis. An art puberty of sorts? In all this mess, I'm confronting old work, materials, and sketchbook musings from my academia days. It's nostalgic. That time of my life was full of theses - works with purpose and deeper meaning. It was also a time riddled with loneliness, future uncertainties, and some painful memories. There's a reason I haven't gone through the closet in 4 years. Ow.

A strategy I've been employing when sorting through these emotionally-charged items and works is to focus on the object and take a minute (or several) to think about the memories surrounding it. I then mentally let it go so it can move on to it's next physical destination (never to return to the closet). I've been taking pictures of old artwork from in there so I can reminisce from time-to-time. I make peace with it being their time to leave my home. This week I'm wrapping up organizing my studio to begin my new chapter of creating art for the hell of it.