The one drawer in my studio I never tidy
I have this shallow drawer in my flat-file that's just chaos. Scraps of paper too small to use, edges I trimmed off, bits of envelopes, a receipt from an exhibition in Copenhagen three years ago, one single glove. Everything else in the studio is ruthlessly ordered, papers sorted by colour and weight, tools in their places. But that drawer is a mess and I can't bring myself to clean it.
I think it's because if I sorted it, all those tiny bits would stop being potential and just become trash. As long as they're in the drawer they might still be something. I know that's not rational. But I don't think the studio needs to be rational everywhere.
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this is so real. i have a shelf like that, it's where all the test tiles go that i'm "going to glaze properly someday" and they just pile up. half of them are ugly as hell but i can't throw them out because what if i suddenly need a tiny terracotta square at 2am.
i think it's also about having proof that you tried things. the scraps hold the process even if they don't look like anything. that drawer is basically your studio's subconscious
The studio's subconscious, that's right. It's where the process sits before it's been decided what it means.
I have a drawer too, but in my case it's the opposite, everything else is chaos and that one drawer is immaculate. Go figure. I think we each need one zone where the rules don't apply, whether it's tidy or not. A place where things don't have to justify themselves yet.
That's a nicer way of putting it than I managed. And I think you're right about the one zone. Mine just happens to be the drawer nobody sees. Maybe that's the point.
The terracotta square at 2am made me laugh because it's true. You don't know when you'll need that exact ugly thing.
And yeah, proof you tried things. That's it exactly. The drawer isn't about the scraps, it's about the fact that I was there making decisions and most of them were wrong. Somehow that's worth keeping.