but there it is: I threw out a National Geographic and I'm proud of myself.
Anyone with any collaging tendencies will understand what I've done. It's like taking your change jar and pitching it. It's like reaching blindly into your closet and throwing out the first thing you grab. For artist types, National Geographic is a storehouse of images, suitable for reference, drawing, collaging, and inspiration. Leaving the information aside (which is excellent), every issue of National Geographic is a gift to an artist. (Okay, if you cast bronzes for a living, National Geographic is probably better suited for your coffee table or bathroom. But for those of us who draw or do collages, it's a gift.)
And I threw out five or six of them. It hurt. I was anxious. Even as I was pitching them, I was seeing uses for them. But here's the thing: whatever they have in them, I can find again when I'm ready for it. Right now is not the time for the wealth of images in the National Geographic. I have at least 80 projects I want to do. I do NOT need more inspiration. I do not need images I can use "some day." All I need around me is what I'm using right now and if I had acres of room, I would keep the National Geographics. But I haven't. And so they go.
Perhaps someday when I've completed all my projects, I will again have National Geographics in the house. But right now they are a distraction and so they are gone.
This is not all I pitched this week-end. I also weeded my library, threw out a juggling bag that I have carried with me over twenty years and countless moves (and as soon as I find its mate, that's getting pitched, too. I lost the third bag years ago. Why did I keep the other two?) and, while I was not prepared to pitch certain other items, I have put myself on notice. The next time I see them I must give an excellent reason to keep them or they get tossed. I have a long way to go but I am hopeful I will arrive with no more or less than what I need.
No comments:
Post a Comment