Creating room for creation!

Today Summer Solstice embraces me with its opening of creating.  I have spent many hours in the last few weeks purging and packing my home.  Today as the last days count down till the move, my eyes catch a glimpse of the corner of the garage that has been a haven to my artwork.   This artwork has spanned 25 years all neatly categorized and placed in portfolio cases all ready to move yet once again.  Only this time, I have been embarking upon the Kon Mari methods of clearing space so my art is on its way to a new adventure.

I walk gracefully but reluctantly over to the corner of the garage that bears this creative graveyard.  All these drawings and paintings lying dormant in closed up carriers never to be seen but once in a decade until I take them out to purge them yet again.  I take the art and slowly walk over to a rare open spot on the garage floor.  I pull out all the pieces and create a neat pile.  I look and touch each one asking if it sparks joy in me.  I gently but persistently feel the energy of each one either pull into me or push away.  When a piece pulls, I feel my heart open and tingle.  I create pile of discards and one that makes me happy.

As I touch each piece I am brought back into the memories of where and when and what class I created the artwork.  I can remember the smell of the room, the lighting and where I was standing as it birthed itself.  This time however, as I go through the pile I am unattached.  I feel free, alive and ready to create space within me to birth anew.  The last piece is held,  I take a deep breath, place one hand on the discard pile and one on my heart and I thank the pieces for their liveness, expression and the experience to be able to have created them with all my heart, to be lost in the process of creating them and be one with my expressive spirit.

I carefully place them in the car to go to the recycling center as I ironically remember tomorrow I am taking my eldest daughter to her pre-college art class for a week.  I smile at this thought.  I then go back and take pictures of the pieces that bring me joy so I can place them on my computer as a screen saver and feel them daily.  I carefully place them in a special case and will create a way to display one each month.  This way their energy can fill my heart and home once again.

I then drive at 9:30 pm to take the discard pile to the recycle center.  I walk with the pile in my arms like it is a baby I have birthed and will watch grow. It is solstice and as I place them in the bin I imagine that as they become recycled with other paper their creative energy will infuse itself into the new paper or objects that will be made from them in the process.  I envision that energy touching whoever and whatever may come to be created.  I feel at peace, I feel free, I feel alive but most of all I feel lighter and open.  I feel the space I created in me by letting go of the art I held onto.  The creative juices spark in me I can’t wait to see what will become of the creative me.