Creativity, Organization, & Lesley Riley

The bead shower (mentioned below) prompted me to get online...to relax and catch up on some blogs. A brief exchange with the amazing Lesley Riley had me visiting her website - a site I hadn't fully soaked in before.

Lesley's creative space/studio has given me such a boost. Frequent readers of my ramblings will already know I finally settled on taking over the living room to carve out my studio. I decided on the living room mostly out of necessity...but due to the move, it's a mess. More of a mess than I would like. (At least it isn't as bad as it was in the infamous blog post I did a few weeks ago!) I will admit (only to you, my dear loyal subjects) that I really need a medium-sized warehouse in order to be fully organized and have room to work.

Instead, I live and create much like everyone else - crammed into every nook and cranny possible. However, much like Lesley, my favorite place to create is on my bed. I don't know if it's the yellow and periwinkle walls I painted, before carefully stenciling morning glories around all the walls...or the randomly placed bees, dragonflies, butterflies, lady bugs, etc I painted and stenciled all around. It's bright and I'm just comfortable in there. Even though I've tried to "force" myself to work downstairs by moving my desk down there...I still carry stuff up to my room when I'm serious about working on things.

Back to my point...I see all these studios/creative spaces in magazines that only serve to depress me. Am I the only person in the world who lives amongst disorganization and kids? How do people find time to create when they are constantly putting things away in perfectly lined up spaces? (And how do they remember where everything is?) But seeing that someone as phenomenal as Lesley Riley creates similarly to me, had a great effect on my attitude.

I thought I was all alone in my creative chaos. That everyone else created in quaint rooms with organizational equipment costing thousands. Then I thought maybe my disarray is due to me undertaking too many realms of art...fabric, jewelry, paper, soldering, book making, etc. But why limit myself just so I can be "organized"?? Yes, I get frustrated when I spend part of my limited creative time looking for supplies...but if that's the price I have to pay in order to play in multiple creative realms, then ok. I'll be ok with that.
Here are some articles about studio organization if you're interested. I've decided that until I have a professional come in and put things in a pleasing arrangement - that I can actually keep up on my own - I'm going to be ok with a little funky mess. If you aren't, try these articles for tips.

eHow on organizing art supplies
eHow article on studio organization
A neat blog, Collage Contessa, with some tips
Ideas from Noadi's Art Studio (cool polymer clay artist)
Suite101.com - always some helpful info on different topics
Quilting Arts ideas - I want Beryl Taylor's studio...or Misty Mawn's...or Virginia Spiegel's...or... :)
And one more
(You can easily find tips by Googling "organized studios" or similar phrases)