73/365: Inspired by Clutter

Today I made:

good use of my mess...

Rough design of page elements; below: close up of acrylic gesso applied with palette knife on textured card stock

As I stood in my art space tonight, contemplating a rough idea and a blank canvas, I told myself I didn't have to finish a piece in this sitting. I had just a few minutes before it was time to don my jersey for Liverpool soccer, and Rodney's fajita dinner was smelling amazing in the kitchen. But I had some time to play and wanted to start designing one of the pages for my project.

I've let my art space get a bit cluttered the past couple weeks so there are all kinds of random scraps and odd collage bits lying around. I had the urge to clean (clean space, clear mind), but instead I allowed myself to begin pulling the elements together haphazardly until a color palette developed. Pieces I had stashed away in my collage files began fitting into my theme. It felt good to make art out of the moment like that, working off of visual stimulus rather than trying to plan and visualize it in mind first. I am such a visual person. There's something to be said about having art supplies out where I can see them, remember to use them and have them call to me at just the right moment in the design process. It's so much easier than starting from scratch. Maybe I need to start with a mess more often. My art desk does not need to be a blank canvas!