not a mess When I have a studio visitor, there's almost always a moment when that person lets out an astonished sort of laugh...the sign that my work table with its jumble of uncapped paints and grimy, encrusted tools has been spotted. Even people who have been in my studio lots of times tend to linger over this mess in amazement. "How in the world do you get from this (the table) to that (a painting on the wall)??!!" I remember one friend asking.

My brother took this photo of one small spot of the table when he and his family visited last week (the table is actually about 8ft. by 3 ft.) He said he was going to use it for his laptop wallpaper. I'm not sure why...is there something inspiring about this? (The friend who came with them impressed her 5-year old with "Rebecca gets to make a BIG MESS every day!")

The thing is, to me it isn't really a mess. I know my way around this...arrangement...of stuff pretty well. I do have a little system going here--it's pretty loose, I admit--but there is some organization to the whole thing. Even if I'm not exactly compulsive about maintaining it.

Frankly, I just have no patience with trying to be neat while I'm in the middle of painting, and afterwards I guess I don't see the point either. I actually do love and respect my materials, although I realize it might be hard to make that case!

Anyway, since everybody seems to get such a kick out of my quirky mess, I thought I'd go public with it, at the risk of embarrassing myself.

(PS: lest you imagine that my house, clothes and personal self are in a similar state of grunginess, please know that in most areas of my life I'm reasonably neat and clean. )  ¶ 7:21 PM