chaos and creation

Right now my new studio is in upheaval.  After I painstakingly painted the doors hot pink (three coats, and ironically I am a terrible painter), then painted the walls and shelving a bright white, I decided to go all out and get some renovation help.  As you can see in the photo, Gene is constructing a storage area for me so that I can put away a lot of my studio junk.  I am heavily influenced by whatever I see, so I like my vista to be a clean slate, no distracting visuals.  At least that is what I thought...

Ironically, in the midst of all this chaos, my painting is going really well.  I have three pieces on the go right now and each one of them is at the stage I would call "getting there", some parts of the painting are really nice, and I can start to visualize the finished painting. Although I am surrounded by mess, I am able to put on the i-pod and just focus on painting.  Perhaps my idealized vision of a clean studio is just impossible.  To begin with I am by nature untidy, then my painting methods generously contribute paint drips and multiple scraps of paper and since I enjoy working on a number of things at once, I tend to spread out throughout the room.  All of this process equals a continually chaotic studio.

I imagine that things would be better if my surroundings were perfectly tidy.  But after years of being unable to attain this zen state of perfection perhaps I should just give up and stop worrying.  Does it really matter if my surroundings are pristine?  I usually focus on the painting for weeks and then when the trash gets ankle deep, I swoop around manically and clean up.  If I spend too much time tidying, I'm usually procrastinating about painting.  But right now, when the painting is going well, I can hardly wait to get into the studio and I don't care if the walls are crumbling or in this case rising around me.