The Raven's Caw

I just had to share this video with you. I love trees, always have. You might say I feel a kinship with them even. And what Diego has done here is nothing less than an honoring of our leaved companions.

Diego Stocco – Music From A Tree from Diego Stocco on Vimeo.

It’s that time of year again: exactly two months before I welcome the public into my studio as part of the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours. And this year is very special; it’s the tenth anniversary of POST. And it’s my seventh year of participating. You can get all the info you want on POST at www.philaopenstudio.com.

It seems that every year there is a sense of dread and impending doom as the event approaches. This dread is not because I don’t like to share what I’m doing with the public. Because I do. And it’s not that I’m averse to selling my work. I’m definitely not. It’s just that by the time late summer rolls around, my studio is usually in its most cluttered and disorganized state. By July and August, I can barely walk in the space (actually, space is not the right word). There is no space. Junk is pilled high on nearly every surface and on the floor. This is compounded by the fact that I’m a mixed media artist who uses trash and found objects in my work. So junk is a necessary ingredient in what I do. The walls are also a mess as work has been removed and sent to shows. And much of the returned work is still in boxes or leaning against whatever has been presumed stable enough to be leaned upon. In other words, the studio is a disaster and there’s just no way it can be straightened up in time for October and POST with its hundreds of visitors. Yet, I manage to do it every year. And at the end of each year’s event, my wife and I come to the same conclusion: “Next year we’ll take the year off.” Inevitably, by May of the following year we’ve decided that yes, we will do it and we’ll just start the decluttering process earlier. Then August arrives and “earlier” has become a houseguest that never showed up.

Well, this year will be different. No, I did not get that earlier start. And, if anything, the studio is in worse condition than in previous years. This year it will be different because I’ve decided to chronicle the process through photography and possibly video. I’m tentatively calling it Operation Studio Clean Up – although, I am looking for a catchier title. Over the next two months, you can follow my progress on this blog as I de-clutter and organize my studio in time for the POST event on October 10th & 11th.

To start us off, you may click on the two thumbnails above to view larger images of the current state of my studio. These, of course, are the before shots. Wish me luck.