Nowhere near neat and nowhere near tidy

A few Christmas Eve's ago, someone made me a little bag to attach to the side of my sewing machine, meant to hold scraps of thread.  There's a pin cushion built in on the top.  As I opened it, my mom bursted out "Have you ever seen her studio?  That bag won't even begin to contain the mess!"  She's right.  It's a big old mess.   

By contrast, one of the MAD visitors yesterday commented that the studio there was so tidy.  It really is clean in there; mostly out of necessity since it gets transformed into a different person's studio every day that the museum is open.  It is a weird experience for me setting up and taking down at the Museum every Wednesday, but I must say that I like being able to see my work without all the clutter that usually surrounds it.  It's a great preview for what it will look like in a white walled gallery.    I was quick to tell her that my studio in Brooklyn is the polar opposite, a chaotic messy collection of piles and layers of stuff, just like my artwork.   Here's proof! I did do an end of the year clean up this morning; click through on that photo for more of the mess. 

A rare sighting of the top of the drawing table!