Sabrina Ward Harrison's collage-based books always delight me. They're rich, unexpected, personal, moving, and yes, as one book title says, messy. The combination makes for lovely and corrective browsing when my left-brain precision threatens to cut off my creativity at the root.
In the Foreward to Messy Thrilling Life, Laurie Wagner, who worked with Harrison on the book's text, describes the way a big wind that blew past the tall studio wall onto which they had tacked and ordered the writings, sending it into what she calls a "swooshy-wooshy mess" on the floor.
"You make your plans and then a great wind comes along," she writes. "And so Sabrina did the only thing one can do, in life and in the studio. She picked up the pages and began again...We didn't remember which piece came first. We hadn't numbered the pages. We started over. Got more coffee, put music on....and in a day she'd created a different book entirely. And I tell you this story, want to show you the swooshy-wooshy mess on the floor, because it reminds me of how life really is," she concludes.
Indeed. The studio's never going to be perfect. Neither is the art/writing/music/whatever we make there. Order and discipline, structure and plans are necessary. But so is the wind that blows through our studios and our minds, making us re-order, re-create, and renew.
At the moment, Harrison's web site is showing a panorama view of what looks like her studio and assorted other personal spaces. Fun viewing, even if you're new to her work.
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