Are you a secret hoarder?

Untitled © Kristye Addison Dudley

Have you ever watched the show hoarders and immediately wanted to throw away everything you own? Now that we are in the military, we are sort of gypsies. We will move every few years. Keeping lots of stuff doesn't work with this lifestyle. Yet and still, I keep collecting.

I watched one Hoarders episode last week and I felt the need to purge things I hadn't worn, used or looked at in a year. Then I watched a documentary called Beautiful Losers. It's about outsider contemporary art culture. I looked at the studios of the artists and thought back to what my studio used to look like. Simply put, organized chaos and at times could have been its own episode of art hoarders.

I used to collect things that inspired me. Magazines, toys, pictures, fabric, equipment (screen printing, laminating machine, book binding, cutting boards, seeing machine and more), history books, music and whatever else I found.

Recently, I found some of my magazine clippings. They still inspire me. The colors and textures are still things I want to paint, but I have found so many excuses not to paint. My husband is deployed, the house needs cleaning, I need to spend time with the kids or I am busy with my freelance work.

Truth be told, I need to draw and paint. It's like something is missing. Painting does mean collecting more things, but it also means creating more things. So I will have to be a more meaningful hoarder.

Be blessed,
Kristye

kristye.com
dorilam.com
kdudley@dorilam.com
Purchase originals and prints