I also have loads of boxes full of magazines. But the more I know them, the less they inspire me. A magazine in my mailbox, a book found in a little free library, and suddenly my imagination takes off to create a new image. As for your writing, I enjoy reading it, especially when you comment on my collages. So please don't stop, and I'll continue to appreciate them and, if I feel up to it, maybe even add a comment myself.😘
I will definately write more about your work Bernie! I have gotten all of them onto the 2026 inventory blog here: https://om-2026.blogspot.com/ I have registered a total of 80 works so far for 2026, I still need to go back in and add more information about each artist and links to their sites. But a brother can only get so much done in a day.
Musing and reflecting on the lonely hoard of potential materials I have stored in my also lonely studio, I pause.
Assemblages require Artists to assemble them and the materials to fuel the assembling. Collages require piles, files and vials of materials- both solid and liquid- to pull form out of retired and lost function. Materials? I have them in great volume. Space to create? Nothing to match the materials horde.
For many years I've also created music. My manner of creation is largely digital. This requires little space. It does require time and mental space. I have learned to live with this time imbalance. I have not learned to live with the longing to create form which can be held, touched, rotated and shared through a more universal language(debatable). I doubt that i ever will.
One final thought. I'm reminded of the dragon Smaug who collected and protected his immense hoard of precious objects. Am I, as well as other Artists, at risk of collecting and protecting rather than creating and propagating? I am being pulled to create the SPACE to CREATE. And we'll see how this endeavor goes.
I hear what you are saying Jim. The poverty of time. And especially as an assemblage artist working with 3-D materials, the poverty of storage/work space! But it is not hording like Smaug if it is organized, it is archived. Yes it is a tough balance to maintain - to organize both time and space as well as attention and energy.
I do read your emails more than some others (even some I pay for!) but I understand the desire to be less frequent with your missives. I’ll be curious to see if the move leads to more interaction or less, since I tend to forget about going to substack unless prompted. That’s a me problem, of course.
As for the stuff - I also have piles of stuff. Boxes, now, since my move in January and slllloooooooww efforts to organize my materials. Paper is mostly available but mixed media odds and ends will probably stay boxed until I have better storage when I move again next year. But the piles inspire me, just as a writing prompt inspires my writing, so they will remain. :)
I moved in this studio three years ago with two big moving trucks and workers - a 2 story 4 bedrooms upstairs (storage with beds), living room (painting studio), dining room(painting studio), family room (collage studio), kitchen(break room). and office - a 3,000 sq.ft house with a three car garage (workshop and storage) and a storage shed (storage) in the back yard - all studio just for me and I still have not unpacked 1/2 of it. I hear you. But, I think of it as a small manufacturing business. So I don't feel so bad about how much stuff I have. And it is fairly organized!
I completely get that overwhelming feeling of acquiring a LOT of stuff.......and mine is all 3-dimentional objects of various sizes. Every once in a blue moon I'll go through most of it and decide what to get rid of but I have to feel a genuine certainty of it's demise to me. Other times I'll rediscover an object that I'm thrilled to find and will use. And yet..........I still go out on the hunt to buy more according to some inner drive that spurns me on to own some wonderful and rare thing to someday use. Not a hoarder per se and I do make room for these things.......but just being around them gives me great satisfaction/contentment knowing they are there for me to use.
As for your emails............me personally, I love reading them every day. And I do get my inbox filled with all sorts of email subscriptions by writers I connect with........some I scan, others I will delete if the subject doesn't catch my eye, but yours, Cecil......I do re-read them often and can relate to what you write about regarding art.......the philosophy of it, how it pertains to everyday life, your ideas, opinions, meanings etc............it's all great writing and feeds me to keep thinking about the subject long after I've read them. But if you are slowing down to once a week........I understand and will optimistically look forward to reading them with anticipation.
Thanks Annette! I don't intend to slow down on writing. I write every day for the most part. But I have a nagging feeling, from talking to various readers in person and they tend to skip over a lot of it for lack of time. Still I have talked to others that read every one and archive them for themselves. But I am thinking there are so many articles in the archive at this point that I can make it more of an event by posting once a week and see how that goes. If people complain that it is too little. I'll reconsider but the general rule on substack seems to be once a week for a long article and to other wise do the more daily stuff as shorter posts in the Notes section. So I am thinking with the once a week, I can also piggytail other things on that article, announcements and so forth and link to related articles. I am going to give it a try anyway.
Scheduling them as one a week, I'll be able to schedule them months ahead if I want to.
One problem, I feel like, is that not too many people interact with a comment or even a like button compared to another writer I know who only has maybe 275 subscribers and gets twenty to 50 comments and banter on her posts. So I want to work on building more of a community which traditionally I have not been that good at becuase I am always busy with myself. I'm a lot to keep up with!
I also have loads of boxes full of magazines. But the more I know them, the less they inspire me. A magazine in my mailbox, a book found in a little free library, and suddenly my imagination takes off to create a new image. As for your writing, I enjoy reading it, especially when you comment on my collages. So please don't stop, and I'll continue to appreciate them and, if I feel up to it, maybe even add a comment myself.😘
That is a google generated bio. Just send me the right ‘you’ and I will replace it.
I will definately write more about your work Bernie! I have gotten all of them onto the 2026 inventory blog here: https://om-2026.blogspot.com/ I have registered a total of 80 works so far for 2026, I still need to go back in and add more information about each artist and links to their sites. But a brother can only get so much done in a day.
Mine is on its way!
It just arrive. Beautiful.
Oh, thank you!! ☺️
https://om-2026.blogspot.com/2026/07/om2026088-danielle-ouellet-spain.html
Cecil you must have mistaken me with someone else. I don't know who's bio is this, but it's not me. I haven't sent you mine yet, still working on it.
Musing and reflecting on the lonely hoard of potential materials I have stored in my also lonely studio, I pause.
Assemblages require Artists to assemble them and the materials to fuel the assembling. Collages require piles, files and vials of materials- both solid and liquid- to pull form out of retired and lost function. Materials? I have them in great volume. Space to create? Nothing to match the materials horde.
For many years I've also created music. My manner of creation is largely digital. This requires little space. It does require time and mental space. I have learned to live with this time imbalance. I have not learned to live with the longing to create form which can be held, touched, rotated and shared through a more universal language(debatable). I doubt that i ever will.
One final thought. I'm reminded of the dragon Smaug who collected and protected his immense hoard of precious objects. Am I, as well as other Artists, at risk of collecting and protecting rather than creating and propagating? I am being pulled to create the SPACE to CREATE. And we'll see how this endeavor goes.
I hear what you are saying Jim. The poverty of time. And especially as an assemblage artist working with 3-D materials, the poverty of storage/work space! But it is not hording like Smaug if it is organized, it is archived. Yes it is a tough balance to maintain - to organize both time and space as well as attention and energy.
I do read your emails more than some others (even some I pay for!) but I understand the desire to be less frequent with your missives. I’ll be curious to see if the move leads to more interaction or less, since I tend to forget about going to substack unless prompted. That’s a me problem, of course.
As for the stuff - I also have piles of stuff. Boxes, now, since my move in January and slllloooooooww efforts to organize my materials. Paper is mostly available but mixed media odds and ends will probably stay boxed until I have better storage when I move again next year. But the piles inspire me, just as a writing prompt inspires my writing, so they will remain. :)
I moved in this studio three years ago with two big moving trucks and workers - a 2 story 4 bedrooms upstairs (storage with beds), living room (painting studio), dining room(painting studio), family room (collage studio), kitchen(break room). and office - a 3,000 sq.ft house with a three car garage (workshop and storage) and a storage shed (storage) in the back yard - all studio just for me and I still have not unpacked 1/2 of it. I hear you. But, I think of it as a small manufacturing business. So I don't feel so bad about how much stuff I have. And it is fairly organized!
I completely get that overwhelming feeling of acquiring a LOT of stuff.......and mine is all 3-dimentional objects of various sizes. Every once in a blue moon I'll go through most of it and decide what to get rid of but I have to feel a genuine certainty of it's demise to me. Other times I'll rediscover an object that I'm thrilled to find and will use. And yet..........I still go out on the hunt to buy more according to some inner drive that spurns me on to own some wonderful and rare thing to someday use. Not a hoarder per se and I do make room for these things.......but just being around them gives me great satisfaction/contentment knowing they are there for me to use.
As for your emails............me personally, I love reading them every day. And I do get my inbox filled with all sorts of email subscriptions by writers I connect with........some I scan, others I will delete if the subject doesn't catch my eye, but yours, Cecil......I do re-read them often and can relate to what you write about regarding art.......the philosophy of it, how it pertains to everyday life, your ideas, opinions, meanings etc............it's all great writing and feeds me to keep thinking about the subject long after I've read them. But if you are slowing down to once a week........I understand and will optimistically look forward to reading them with anticipation.
Thanks Annette! I don't intend to slow down on writing. I write every day for the most part. But I have a nagging feeling, from talking to various readers in person and they tend to skip over a lot of it for lack of time. Still I have talked to others that read every one and archive them for themselves. But I am thinking there are so many articles in the archive at this point that I can make it more of an event by posting once a week and see how that goes. If people complain that it is too little. I'll reconsider but the general rule on substack seems to be once a week for a long article and to other wise do the more daily stuff as shorter posts in the Notes section. So I am thinking with the once a week, I can also piggytail other things on that article, announcements and so forth and link to related articles. I am going to give it a try anyway.
Scheduling them as one a week, I'll be able to schedule them months ahead if I want to.
One problem, I feel like, is that not too many people interact with a comment or even a like button compared to another writer I know who only has maybe 275 subscribers and gets twenty to 50 comments and banter on her posts. So I want to work on building more of a community which traditionally I have not been that good at becuase I am always busy with myself. I'm a lot to keep up with!