The 2 C's

There are days I am in the studio with no clear idea about what I'm going to do, I call those times – cleaning periods. An artist studio is usually an hectic combination of materials, colors, canvases, books and memories there is all the time a need of thorough cleaning there.. 

• So, I clean, I'm not washing the floor in my home but in my studio, I go for it big time, in those cleaning periods I get rid of a lot of stuff I don't need, I found out that I don't need most of the staff I own, so, why I keep on buying new stuff? Well, this would be the topic of another writing.

  There were periods in my artistic life in which I considered those cleaning periods as waste of time, I have my studio to create art don't I? if I fancy to wash floors why bother to pay my studio rents? But over time I found my ways to cherish those cleaning periods, I found out that taking care about my waste is not a waste of time, on the contrary, the hands are occupied with dusters and cleaning materials but the mind is free to fly high, many new innovative ideas emerged in those cleaning periods, it is like the physical cleaning generates clarity in the mind and in my thinking process, the choice what to keep and what to give away is a choice between what I really need at that moment and what is an unnecessary weight, so whenever I'm giving away stuff and get more space in my studio is like I enlarge my creative domain and enhance the chance I have to fully express myself with less burden from physical objects. In my dreams I have a Japanese studio, meaning extremely minimal with nothing but a table and one canvas on it.

  In those cleaning periods, I feel aligned with my destiny as an artist, it is like I am the Moon rotating Planet Earth, I can see the life and vividness on Planet Earth I can feel it but at this stage I'm swiveling quietly around it, swiveling and cleaning.

  There are rare moments where I through the duster away, install new canvas on my working table and start a magical fest of colors which in the end becomes an artwork, if I am not satisfied with the result, I'll use another layer and another one till I'm satisfied, and if I'm not satisfied I'll paint the canvas with white gesso to begin a totally new layer from the start.

  As I don't push my painting sessions I'm not planning my cleaning periods, making art and cleaning the studio are weaved together into an inseparable fabric of existence, in my life there is no separation between those two C's, creating and cleaning are complementary.

  Have magic in your life

  Ted Barr