terriloui

How do you condense three rooms worth of art supplies and ephemera into one room?

Slowly. With gentle, brutal focus, a huge trashcan, an 80s Pandora playlist. Shuffle, repeat. Breathe, switch to Tom Waits, repeat. Haul and purge, repeat.

Decades worth of amassing creative tools & bits & bobs. I am now methodically sorting, purging, discerning the quick and the dead, the loved and abhorred in a blackstrap molasses move up (and down) two flights of stairs. Exhilarating and liberating when a trash bag gets tied up and permanently moved out — mentally exhausting when I hold a valued thing and replace it on another undecided pile.

Yes, Marie Kondo it gave me joy, still does, now Hell’s bells, where does it go?

I am not thinking of arson. But I ponder a summer bonfire and the phrase “a move is as good as a fire.” I’ve been in this house nearly 18 years. I move physically at the gym, not so much at home.

I hit the pause button, switch gears and attempt to inaugurate my newly painted, purty, as yet uncluttered space. Create in the midst of the chaos? No good, had to pack a ditty bag, head to a friend’s home to exhale, play, drink cider and create.

Successful playdate, I made a lanyard necklace. Encouraging feedback and I’m ready to hone technique, play, repeat.