Beautiful/Decay: What A Mess

What is it about making a mess that is so gratifying? As a kid I loved nothing more than tearing up magazines, creating giant forts in my bedroom, and generally wreaking havoc all over my house. There is something youthful in the process of making a giant mess, and something liberating about walking away after. Take little kids#x19; artwork: they make a drawing by pouring a gallon of glue and handfuls of glitter onto construction paper. They take a pile of macaroni and create tribal masks out of paper plates. They color drawings but stay strictly outside the lines. It#x19;s like they have this massive amount of creativity that they can#x19;t harness or control. It ends up pouring out of them in waves, destroying all surfaces in its path.Now that I#x19;m much older I still enjoy messes but with a dash of restraint tossed into the mix. I#x19;m still attracted to looking at and making work that borders on chaos. Amazing results can be attained when the youthful #x1C;I make my own rules" energy is exploited in the right way. It#x19;s a matter of balancing the two to get it right. The artists our "What A Mess!" release all create messes in their own way, whether through multiple sourced collages, loose paint handling, disorganized methods of displaying work, or rough-hewn styles. But the mess doesn#x19;t stop there. Others artists employ #x1C;political#x1D; messiness, whether creating works that cause public outrage, or manipulate taboo imagery or themes. In the spirit of the theme of this release, we got a little messy ourselves, crumpling photos, using a playful approach to our page layouts, andcreating a custom typeface out of childhood favorite construction materials: googly eyes, popsicle sticks and puff balls, crumpled photos, and used a playful approach to our page layouts.