Measuring success
I started work on Wednesday not knowing how to solve the problems I was facing at the studio. Two paintings of the abstractive figurative series were not fitting in -- one was "too" figurative, the other "too" abstract. I still needed to "clean up" the pieces I was donating, brace them together, and get hardware so the paintings could be hung. A portrait was done with "phase one" but I was questioning what to do for "phase two."
So what did I do?
I tore up cardboard boxes.
My studio is a little workshop nestled "underneath" a seven-unit building at the corner of two streets. There is a tiny studio apartment on the same "garden" level, a garage, and the trash receptacles. Two of the apartments have new tenants who, not surprisingly, have created a lot of trash -- mostly packing and appliance boxes. For weeks the trash area has been overwhelmed with cardboard. The trash collectors only take away what is in the two containers. The concept of breaking down boxes is foreign to my neighbors who fill whatever container with whatever garbage they create (we are big on sorting trash from recycling from compost in San Francisco). As I walk by this mess everyday I fail to understand why people have such a hard time disposing of it properly. The garbage collectors pick up the trash on Tuesdays and Fridays. Today the bins were empty. If I couldn't solve my painting problems at least I could do was make a dent in this problem. I started ripping cardboard up into small pieces and neatly packing them into the bins in a way that utilized the space economically. I didn't want to fill them to the brim because my neighbors need space for this week's trash treasure-trove, but I made a very large dent in the overflow. It took an hour.
That done, I started painting. I stopped trying to make the figurative paintings work and just did what they were "asking" me to do. I "cleaned" up all the edges and bought the hardware I needed for the donation paintings. The portrait I decided to leave alone for now.
It felt like a very successful day.