Blessings in Small Spaces

So Count Gregoir here was the result of a challenge to blindly rip two pages out of a magazine and using whatever else you desire make something

Now I can say a lot about this experience as the exercise took me in several new directions and expanded my style and repertoire of skills. But that isn’t what I want to share. It’s the workspace in which Mr. Count-nose-in-the-air came into being.

It was very small – tiny – miniscule! Yes I have a studio and if I ever….that should be ‘when’ I dawn the pith helmet, hire sherpas and bravely forge my way back in that disaster I will have a space more conducive to creativity……or is it?

I’ve been artblog-serfing and peeking in on where the art happens for others. And it’s really. …well it’s really comforting in a bizarre small minded “look they’re as bad as me!” way. From the perilously poised breadboard on the edge of a much cluttered desk to the tv-table and Rubbermaid tub stuffed in a nook to the small square of floor in front of the vaguely couch-shaped lump of unfolded laundry to the arm of the one chair not filled with cats and kids we carve out our small refuge. Oblivious to the disarray and chaos we open up our arty souls and create.

Oh it’s not that we don’t think about the disaster or berate ourselves often and harshly it’s just that in spite of it we are drawn to create, whatever, wherever and however we can. That wee space, that precious space, that modest seemingly restrictive space is a monument to the undaunted spirit of the creative mind.

So here was my Count all spanking new and proud of himself and as I bought him to focus though the lens of my camera I was stilled. A little dumbfounded. Look! Look at this space! Look what happened here! I had to stop and just absorb this revelation and the power of the creative impulse to express itself regardless of the limitation.

So for all you angst ridden artist who struggle with the disarray and limits of your creative environment and for those of you who stop creating until you’ve organized your studio I invite you to take a moment to truly celebrate that small space and the amazing things that occur there!