If you are a prolific artist who struggles to keep a neat and tidy house, you probably don’t need to read any further. You already know why prolific artists have messy homes.
My local Art Gallery is home to a reconstruction of part of Margaret Olley’s house. You can look in the windows and see remnants of the flowers Margaret used as inspiration for a painting.
Empty cans and paint tubes litter the kitchen. Easels, palettes and treasures from travels, cover every nook and cranny.
Margaret would offer a meal to visitors when they arrived. Most would decline, claiming they had just eaten. Those with a more robust constitution tell of the great meals Margaret would whip up, seemingly effortlessly, amidst the clutter.
Margaret’s art filled many exhibitions and her fame spread far and wide.
But what if?
I’m not an artist – I’m not even a painter. But I do share Margaret’s definition of a neat house.
When I’m not creating, I tidy my house, and it stays tidy until the next creative idea bursts forth. Creative pursuits have absolute precedence over mundane chores. Only the most urgent matters penetrate the creative cocoon I build around me.
Perhaps that’s how it was with Margaret?
Don’t accept someone else’s reality as your own. It isn’t!
Did well-meaning people try to pressure Margaret Olley into conforming to their reality?
What if Margaret had conformed?
There are homes with no clutter. And homes where you are afraid to step inside because they feel so sterile or fragile.
What if Margaret had chosen to spend hours each day tidying her house? Finding a place for everything and putting everything in its place: dusting; polishing; de-cluttering; mopping.
In her dying moments would she look back and be proud of her incredibly neat and tidy home?
We will never know.
Because if she looked back in those last moments of her existence, Margaret would see the legacy she was leaving the world. The hundreds of beautiful works of art she created that will live on forever.
Margaret Olley’s paintings are the testament of her creative life, and the world will be eternally grateful.
What legacy will you leave behind?
Will future generations remember the tidy home you had?
Or will you leave behind thousands of words that will inform and entertain?