Later Gator

This is the final spread for DOCUMENTED LIFE (DLP)...there's not much I can say about the first year of DLP that I didn't say about Journal 52 in yesterday's post...it's with the same melancholy feeling that I bring 2014's DLP journal to a close.  

Just like J52, DLP will continue next year, and I will continue right along with it for as long as possible, but I don't know if it will hold the same meaning for me that this first year has...I can only hope, I suppose.

The prompt for the final DLP spread is "Draw or Collage Something That Begins With the First Letter of Your First Name."  

And here's what I came up with:

Look at my desk!  It's clean!  Holy guacamole!  ...but more on that later...

Here's the left side, as close as I could get it with the full page showing (mostly):

I figured I would do a little collage on one side of the spread  and draw/paint on the other and be an overachiever like I like to do...

Just in case you don't know, my name is Amy.  I chose to go with "A" things instead of my normal inclination to go with Sweet Red Clover as my 'name' for any kind of prompt where names are involved.  I don't know why it was, but I knew I really wanted to use "A" stuff before I ever even considered what it was I would do for the spread...but of course I still had to sneak in a little clover action on the page...

I got the all the Aces and the 'A' flashcard with the apple on it in happy mail, so thanks to everybody that sent those to me!  I happened to get a piece of junk mail  yesterday  (the pieces of manila envelope) and the words "important" and "documentation" caught my eye, so I tore them out thinking I would use them sometime...although I didn't realize it would be so soon!  And the little tag from the Earl Grey I was drinking as I worked on this spread...had to throw him in there! 

I'm not much of a collage person...sometimes I get it right and other times, not so much.  This one, whether it's good or...other, makes me happy...so it must be ok, I guess!

 The "End Here." and the words at the bottom of the page (you can see them in the pic before this one...it says "See nothing to be scared of.  It was even a little fun, right?") were already in the SmashBook (that I converted for my DLP journal), and I was glad to be able to keep them visible, since they seemed like good words.

And this is the right side of the spread:

See you later, alligator!
I copied this guy (with a few changes...not enough to call him my own, for sure) from some art I saw on Pinterest.
You can see the original (which is TOTALLY awesome...) on my 'Copycat With Respect' board.

While they were two separate projects, DLP and J52 have served the same major purpose for me...which is proving to myself that I could, in fact, finish what I started.  And so it seems fitting that both the first page for my J52 journal and the last page of my DLP journal have balloons on them.  I remember very distinctly someone from the J52 group on Facebook commenting (a whole year ago, that's how happy it made me!) that my first page should be in a children's book...it's one of the kindest compliments I've ever gotten about my art!  And this gator, even though he's pretty much a copy of someone else's work, looks to me like he'd be a good children's book too!  (Best compliment I ever gave my own art! ☺)

Again, like J52, the only thing that's left of DLP for me is to do a little (but picture heavy) post showing all the spreads in one place...and maybe to decorate the cover, but I haven't decided if I want to do anything to this one, I kind of like it as is.  We'll see...

-

As you might be able to tell from the first picture, I started cleaning my studio.

Actually, I think it would be better described as purging.

I've told you before that I never clean...and honestly, that's only a very slight exaggeration of the facts.  But when the idea of how cluttered and disgusting my studio actually is just wouldn't leave my mind, I knew there was a reason for it.

Normally when I clean my studio, I keep everything...I don't do this in any other room of the house, but in my studio I think I can't get rid of that!  I might need it someday!  ...like a true hoarder would.

But this time was different.

I just kept looking at things I would normally keep...minuscule scraps of paper, empty tubs that once held gesso and other various mediums, pens that 'still write' (albeit not all the time or not very well), packaging from any kind of box that was brought into the house...and I thought to myself It's weighing you down.

When I stood back and looked at all that extra stuff, a big black garbage bag full to the point of ripping, it gave me such a nauseating feeling.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for doing what you can with what you have and recycling and not wasting things and all that stuff...but what I was doing was not that.  I was burying myself under 'art supplies'.  I was hiding in a fort of useless objects so that I wouldn't have to see or hear the things that frustrate and offend me.

I don't want that kind of burden anymore.

That's why I had to take the time to clean up and toss and reevaluate what I would use versus what I felt like I had to use.  Other people do awesome stuff with cereal boxes, so I should keep mine...but, you know what, I'll never do anything with them.  I am not everybody else...I'm just me, and that's the only standard I should measure myself against.

I come from a place of meager means, and maybe a part of me got twisted into believing that it's frugality to keep everything you ever come into contact with.  But that's not true.  There's no shame in getting rid of something that's broken.  There's nothing wrong in passing something you are not going to use on to someone who will...even if you spent money to have it.  There's no one searching through my trash bag with a ruler saying that two inch scrap of paper was too big to just throw away!

I don't want to have that heavy feeling holding me down anymore...especially not in relation to my studio!  

I'm not done with the purging just yet.  In all honesty, I'm probably only about halfway there...but egads, if the ending brings me half as much relief as the beginning did, I'll be doing the happy dance for weeks!

In one of the Reverb14 posts, I mentioned that I'd like to have a house full of things that I love...that no matter where I look, I want my eyes to land on something that brings me joy.  And the practical aspect of starting on that goal is to rid myself of anything that doesn't.  So cheers to me for starting on that goal a little earlier than the new year!

To quote Mary Oliver, "I want to be light and frolicsome", and if getting down and dirty with cleaning is the first step, then I'm on my way.