Clutter, Minimalism, and Artist's Block

-royalty free stock photo

When I went to see Assassin's Creed last week, there was a scene where the main character was sitting in a nearly empty room with a small twin sized bed as its only furnishing. I turned to my sister and said, "I wish my room could be like that." Her response was less than flattering. She laughed and she laughed and laughed.

I have always wanted to be a minimalist. Now, wanting to be a minimalist and actively living a lifestyle that promotes minimalism are two separate ideas entirely. One day a friend said to me, "You like anime. There is no way you could ever be a minimalist." Generalizations aside and apologies to those reading who are offended by such a statement. I did not know how to react to such a candid statement at the time. I knew that it was not cool to group people in stereotypes based on a particular interest.

One thing is certain, I am definitely not a minimalist. I tend to acquire things and one of my quirks is that I tend to buy things in multiples. My preference for drawing using traditional tools does not help cut back on clutter as I like to save every single original sketch that I have ever drawn because I can not bring myself to shred them even after I have scanned them into the computer. The greatest challenge I have faced in the past year was that my work space was starting to become the reason for my artist block because my table was always covered in "stuff" that added to my apathy of being productive in making art. It is almost sad to admit that my submission for the Secret Santa art exchange was the first piece of art I was able to create this year.

As a Christmas present for myself, I dedicated all of Christmas Eve to the full cleaning and redesign of my room. I placed my computer/drawing desk facing the outside window so I can draw using natural light during the day. It was a amazing to sit down at my clutter-free table this morning and feeling the cloud of artist block slowly lift.


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