My Dirty Little Secret

Several of you emailed to let me know how you envied my neat and tidy studio, so I thought I'd let you in on my dirty little secret. I'm not one of those terminally obsessive neatniks by any stretch of the imagination. In the studio, I can stand messes up to a point, and then they distract me from art and I have to do something about them. The same "rule" doesn't apply to the rest of the house, however.

The first photo shows what I refer to as the library (what was supposed to be the family room but now there's no family at home so I took it over). You are looking at my flat files piled high with several years of unfiled insurance updates and policies, books, magazines that I've read but don't want to throw away and haven't found a place for, and some records that need to be sorted and shredded. Next to it is an old mahogany buffet also piled high with business papers that don't yet have a permanent home or are used regularly. You can also see a grocery bag of papers to be shredded on the left and behind that are boxes and boxes of unread magazines dating back several years. All are art, computer or horse magazines that I'm going to look through "some day".

On the wall is a pastel painting I did many years ago of my kids who fell asleep together in a chair. It needs to be revised "some day".


The photo above shows more clutter. In the center is the coffee table ladened down with boxes and boxes of more magazines of more recent vintage. The whole surface is covered with them! There is also some unopened mail piled on top. The book cases in the back hold mostly art books. One can never have too many of these, you know. The furniture, you may note, is all in the Mediterranean style that was so popular when we bought it in the early seventies and is still going strong. You may also note that I don't bother with such frivolities as window treatments.

So, now you know my dirty little secret - or secrets. I would never win a good housekeeper of the year award, but who cares??