Marjorie Moore: A New Order

Stuck is a weird word, is there a word unstuck? We are asked to tell the reader what we do as artists when the practice seems to be in stasis or limbo. What are the steps we take to undo the condition?

This past year I found myself in a mixture of grief and loss. I lost my mate, after fifty-seven years of marriage, to a sudden death. Faced with the sudden reality of learning to live alone for the first time in my life, I was certainly “stuck” in terms of studio practice.

First steps:

I am a collector and organizer. I find that by reorganizing categories and establishing a new order I can find a path. Why not place push pins in color categories? Put those monkey toys in a new situation. Wow, I didn’t remember having these old coloring books. How many cracker jack toys were in a box I forgot I had?

By going through this process of reorganization my mind begins to free a bit. Then it is time to play. I try not to make big statements a priority. Just doing a drawing or collage begins a slow road to a possible new body of work. It is important for me to embrace the uncertainty of being “stuck.”

When I walk into the studio and shut the door, I am alone with myself. What happens next is always punctuated with a question. Engaging with the question can act like a kind of psych “goo-gone” and slowly I can become “unstuck.” The questions I ask myself can vary. Is this a stupid idea? Does that material work with the concept? Would anyone beside me want to even look at this? Have I already done this in the past? And now and then, I walk in, shut the door, and I ask the question “Do I like the art I made yesterday?” And the answer is yes. And on the journey goes.

The coloring books found in my quest for new order have taken hold along with a collection of cracker jack toys. The works here are definitely a “work in progress”; I am running away with the circus.  The reorganization that helped move me from being “stuck” allowed me to find a new route from an older path. I have run away to the circus before. Three of the images show works from that time in Texas.