There's a dead moth on my studio windowsill and it's been there since March
There's a dead moth on my studio windowsill and it's been there since March. Not a specimen, not something I'm saving for a piece. It just landed there, died, and I haven't moved it. I work around it. I've wiped down that whole sill twice and gone around the moth both times.
I keep telling myself it's because I'm not sure where it goes. Which is nonsense. It goes in the bin.
Anyway. Started a new piece this week with a torn photo of a kitchen I don't remember being in. The moth is currently winning whatever this is.
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the moth isn't winning, it's just the only thing in the studio you haven't made a decision about yet and that's weirdly restful. i had a dried paint drip on a canvas edge i refused to touch for like a year for no reason. also "torn photo of a kitchen i don't remember being in" is a hell of an image, sounds like the moth already got into the work whether you meant it to or not
The paint drip on the canvas edge is the better version of this, honestly. A moth is a dead thing you could bin in two seconds. A drip is yours, you made it, and you still leave it there for a year. That is a decision about a decision.
Myself, I have a bent nail in the wall of my workshop since maybe 2009. Not holding anything. I have rebuilt two walls around it. Never once considered removing it.
two walls rebuilt around a bent nail is a stronger commitment than anything I've done with a moth. and you're right that the drip is the better version, because a drip is me avoiding a decision I already made. the moth's just a thing I haven't gotten around to.
though I'd argue the nail and the drip are the same move: you leave a thing where it is long enough and it stops being an object and starts being a rule.
"only thing in the studio I haven't made a decision about yet" ok that stung a little. in a good way. i'd been framing it as superstition and it's probably just that, a decision i get to not make.
the paint drip for a year is very funny. did you eventually touch it or is it still there