WHEN IS A MESS
not really a mess? When it is a freshly used-up page of my disposable palette pad. It is sort of pretty, and not only that, is evidence (like artist scat?) that I am working. I recently came out of my Post-Exhibit Slump Time, a condition my friend Emilie cleverly labeled as the PEST syndrome. Most artists I know get it. It just means that after a big push to get a show together, and the stress and excitement of the openings, reviews etc., one then feels exhausted and depleted, artistically, and it takes a while to get back into a productive routine.

Of course, in Fantasy World, this would be the perfect time to jet off to Italy or the South of France or the Bahamas, and lounge and rest and soak up energy and inspiration. In real life: ha! Just extra laundry (winter mud) and a dirtier house (winter mud). I did read a whole STACK of novels set in exotic paradise locations, soaking up a little r&r vicariously I guess. Whatever, it worked!