Artists, like humans, contain multitudes and when it comes to the spaces we create in, they all look different. If we do find ourselves on the messier side, we also know that there’s a difference between a mess you love, that inspires, and keeps the connections flowing, and a mess that blocks, hinders, and holds you back. A fun mess and a depressing garbage mess are two very different things. Mess can also be cyclical—certain projects create more mess than others, and sometimes things just get out of control and you know eventually you’ll reel it back in again.
Saved by Alex Dobrenko and
To come up with new ideas, you have to have space to be messy, to procrastinate, and to let your mind wander and free-associate. But there needs to be a balance. You eventually need to channel it into something concrete, or you won’t produce anything.
from Jon Rafman and Dasha Nekrasova on the Horror We Call Life by Dasha Nekrasova
Brinkman’s personality was a case study in one of the most well-known findings in the history of creativity research: Creative people have messy minds. Creative people also tend to have messy processes.
“Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground—you can still discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip. Tidiness suggests that something is as good as it’s
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