growing up with the "messy girl" look, tumblr, and the tail end of traditional tabloid media, making/being a mess has never had a negative connotation in my book. my first intro to celebrity culture, around the time i got onto the internet, was during the time of lindsay lohan arrest timeline articles and justin bieber's first DUI. all the disney stars' formula break-out mini scandals taught my peers and i that making a mess is hot, that it gets you attention.
in addition, my parents, both air signs, who moved us about every 18 months for the first decade of my life (and more after that, though less frequently) mind no mess. the apartments i grew up in were scattered with art projects, seashells, clothes all over, messy kitchen and ice cream for dinner. bit of a free-for-all. we had an aerial swing as a permanent fixture in the living room and a blue yoga ball that did not have a place, it just floated around for anyone to use it/trip over it/kick it/stretch/play/bounce/have a serious conversation while splayed over it upside down.
if anything, i was the rock, the voice of reason, and my parents the free spirits.
that said, a mess in my own studio often stresses me out, but i simply do not possess the natural ability to keep a clean space, probably as a result of my upbringing. hm.
oh well, wouldn't change it.
so what is it about a mess that is so interesting?
a mess gives the eye something to follow. unlike a neatly composed work, the eye doesn't just travel, it breaks and jumps and follows the chaos. the viewer subconsciously starts to create a backstory –– how did it get like this? you begin to picture the action that created the image before you.
immediately the imagination is active.
but besides being evidence of chaos, messiness is simply evidence of human life.
when in love, a mess is: "i don't mind that the sink is full, it means you were here." when in love, a forgotten item of clothing or a disheveled couch is no mess, just a state, as-is, honest.
the thing that is interesting to me about a mess is the potential to clean it up.
there comes a point in a sewing project when my table (and sometimes the floor around it) is a complete disaster. this is true currently, as i type away in a small corner of my couch, hiding from a partially-sewn commission and heaps of laundry i have neglected in the whirlwind of the last few days.
this point of the project, in the break so to speak, is a wildly frustrating/exciting time. it is the top of the hill. you start with a nice neat pile of supplies, then cut out pieces and snip threads and it all piles up and you create the mess. up until this point has been beginning. after this, you get to really check off boxes, piece together bits of garments, then assemble and assemble and assemble until the piles are not fragments anymore. it's magic.
perhaps sewing is a comfort to me because i know any mess to be made is entirely intentional and in my control. trust the process.
when i am regularly sewing, this metaphor is very apparent in the rest of my life and i treat sewing how the general public speaks of habitually reading or exercising: "it's just good for you."
a mess is also what happens when you do nothing.
it takes effort and energy to wrap your headphones in a neat little circle, as opposed to just tossing them around where they will tangle into a mess at the bottom of your bag. it takes effort and energy to sweep up the studio floor at the end of the day so bits of thread and dust and corners of fabric cuttings won't build up into a mess by the end of the week. it takes effort and energy to maintain the quality of just about anything (except denim, that shit can just rock and roll) otherwise we end up with a mess. this is true for relationships and health and the state of my apartment, blah blah etcetera.
following this logic, effort and energy = care (i want to maintain quality) = attention (what does __ need to maintain quality?) = love (carrying out the actions required to maintain quality).
love your mess and it will no longer be a mess. and/or, accept the state of your mess and it will reveal itself to be one big loving WIP.
channels that inspired/relate/feature:
consuming while writing: