Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Organic Ization



The left hand side of my desk in the studio has a set of hanging file folders, divided with titles like "kindgom of the animals," "where those pretty girls are," and "pitter patterns." Inside the folders are fodder that I have cut from magazines, or inky sketches that interpret patterns that caught my eye. The folders are partly my bag of tricks, partly my loose leaf sketch book. They are essentially the most important part of my creative process.

I've learned that if it catches my eye, even for a second, than it is probably worth cataloging.

It's another valuable lesson that I learned in school, though it took me a long time to figure out how to utilize it. I look outside to find inspiration everywhere, and then I brew it through my filter. I'm not the creator, I'm the gatherer. There may seem to be no rhyme or reason to what I store in the folders. The methods is similar to my train of thought, which may have 17.5 hopscotch-like steps between points A and B. Ideas are like constellations. And thats why keeping things organized is incredibly important, though my definition of organized is a very fluid thing (just ask Owl about my uncanny ability to find exactly what he is looking for, there is a method to the madness).



The delightful part of the method is that I find little tidbits I had forgotten about. If I am stuck in the middle of working on a piece, usually it will only take thumbing through a folder or two before I find the solution.



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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Organic iZation...how tongue in cheek. I have a folder somewhere with about 1000 kate moss pictures in case that ever comes up :-)