Sometimes, when I'm in the studio my mind drifts into daydreams about some of the stuff in my working environment. This happens far more often than I can count. In these daydreams, I sometimes ponder the potential usefulness of some of the collected ephemera left over from art-making. Most of what I'm thinking about is how the dust, paint-streaked tape, dried paint and random studio items piled together mark different points in the narrative of recent studio life and then wonder if I can make anything worthwhile out of it.
"What should I do with this?" is the constant mental refrain as I'm removing tape from the sides of completed canvases and panels. Most of the time, the answer is "collage", as in converting the blue painter's tape now covered to varying degrees with paint and mediums that have dripped or been scrapped down the sides of paintings into something that might be considered art. I've already embarked on a series of tape and paint collages with the used left-over tape and paint. Some are successful and others, not so much, but main thing is that I took the chance to give these leftovers a second life. It's either that or get rid of it, because some things are just meant to trashed or recycled.
I also look at studio ephemera as part of the on-going narrative of studio life and nothing more. I'll look at a bit of canvas or see the odd sketch on a random piece of paper and remember what I was working on at a particular time. In those moments, I also remember that this recollection of past actions is only relevant to myself and contributes to a personal history that is being built upon with every moment that passes.
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