Managing "Waste" in the Studio

Wasted material, wasted money, wasted time. No one wants to waste "things", but it's a big part of what motivates me, not just in art, but in life. 

When I was working a 9 to 5 office job I was efficient, an excellent employee. I didn't like seeing resources wasted and didn't like wasting others time or my own. 

I've carried this mindset with me into my art practice...

• The collection of trash and other discarded objects I save for printing marks, textures, and shapes in my work.
• The buckets of murky paint water I filter, so it won't go down drain. 
• The massive collection of printed paper scraps saved for collage, my own or others.
• The old t-shirts I cut up for rags.

The list goes on and on, because I want to avoid being wasteful.

And generally this is good thing, right? But at times this mindset has felt paralyzing and actually counterproductive to my creative process. 

"What if I ruin the good paper?"  "Waste these expensive paints?" "Use too much of my limited time without having something productive to show for it?"

Honestly, it's taken so much work to get to a place where I can push those questions aside...most of the time.

I'm working on a new series, Child's Play, which centers on printing with found and discarded board games and toys. So much of my time the last few months has been exploratory, initially testing out colors, textures, and marks, but also in terms of new (to me) techniques like image transfers and mixing different methods for building layers in my gel prints. 

I'm truly enjoying the process and feel good about where this work is headed, but as I went through a pile of W.I.P.'s today, it was hard not to let some of those fears over "waste" creep in.

Of the stack of monotypes I've made so far while working on this series...

• I feel really good about 1/3 of them, they're ready for stitching.
• I'm mixed on another 1/3. They aren't bad, but maybe not good either. I may like them more with stitching or collaged elements, but they may end in a pile of seconds or ?
• And the final 1/3 are no-go. They will end up getting cut up or repurposed in some way, but they definitely don't make the cut. 

Truthfully, I don't worry about wasting materials as much anymore. I'll find some use for prints that didn't work out. It's the little voice on my shoulder that worries about "wasted" time that's harder to shake. 

Slowly, I've become better at recognizing the difference between true waste (scrolling IG) versus "failures" or distractions that often an important part of the process. 

I remind myself that even if I just sit and ponder paint drying on my gel plate or pull a print that doesn't lift cleanly from the plate, I'm still learning something through the process, which is never a waste of time.

Here are a few images of works in progress from my Child's Play series. Thanks for reading.