Is your life a piece of Art?

As always, the exhibition left me with no creative energy. Why?

Perhaps being tired is the obvious explanation of this drop of energy? Every time I have an exhibition I am surprised by the quantity of work it demands. Many tasks are pilling up and everything has to be perfect!

Another explanation would be that after a climax, an anticlimax is mandatory. It is not trivial to show the work of this last year. It involves many emotions. When it was over I felt a sort of emptiness: “what do I do now?”

The last explanation would be disappointment. In spite of the praises and encouragements I received, there were not enough sales.

And when it was over, I felt quite distraught.

So I decided to tidy up our family room. For those who don’t know me well, I have to explain: no, I’m not obsessive about tidying up. For me, tidying up is a necessary evil. My studio is usually a mess. I push everything aside and try to concentrate on painting only.

Then why did I decide to deal with these bookcases? I never took the time to organize them since we moved in, ten years ago. I asked myself: what if I took care of the bookshelves as if they were a piece of art? With the same patience, and the same aspiration for perfection?

You can see the result on the pictures. The most surprising thing was the pleasure I had doing it. I usually try to finish these chores as fast as possible to get done with it. This time I had a wonderful, calm and serene week, sorting out books, arranging them in a pleasant way, dusting, etc…

But did our family room became a piece of art? Nowadays, the definition of art is so fluid that I could say it is an installation. After all, you can find in museums urinals, medecine cabinets and even a banana skin (I saw this one in the New Museum in New York).

Between you and me, I don’t think that my book cases are a piece of art. and it does not matter! What does matter is to consider our surrounding like it was and to take comfort in simple objects and activities. Think of what Andy Warhol did to the Campbell soup!