it seems there is a sudden explosion of spring cleaning going on. yes, my studio is full of physical artworks which may or may not ever be sold. and then there are all the little drawings and stuff that are part of the work but are never sold and all the dozens of note books filled with thoughts about the work and all the stuff that gets collected because it would be just great in a collage and all the paint and pencils and ink and glue and brushes and stuff and more stuff. i kind of like all the stuff around me but on some days it does seem to be way too much. plus way to many shoes.
i think it would be lovely to have a zen sort of environment but have long ago reconciled myself to the fact that it will never happen in any space i occupy. i don't think a 'past the sell date' applies because artists strive to be immortal and fool around with the idea that someday though we be dead the work will live on and won't that be wonderful. kind of crazy isn't it? but being an artist all your life is kind of crazy and wonderful too. i paint way to many large scale paintings because i like doing them and over the years storage has become a problem especially when i avoid galleries as much as possible. the good news is the weather is getting warm and i can spend more time outdoors and not see the stuff so much. i feel very good about things as i took three bags of excess clothing to the free box today and now have more closet space. living and working in the same space really adds to the stuff in a big way though i try to keep my stuff and the art stuff separate. even though ray johnson talked alot about nothing he left a large number of artworks and never did try much to sell anything. enough rambling, bests, carol xx So, the question really becomes: To you, how important is the physicality of artwork - that you need to have it around you? It seems to me that these large scale works can't really be turned into "0"s and "1"s (except thru documentation, I suppose). Do those of you who create physical artworks on a larger scale (canvas, sculpture) have the problem of having too much creat(ed/ive) work. around the studio? Yes, of course, you want to sell stuff, but what of the stuff that you can't sell? Is there a "past-it's-sell-by-date" at some time where it's documented then discarded? Rod
