Elsewhere Artist Collaborative 606 +608 Elm St.

Upon first walking into Elsewhere, my first thought was that I had walked into a place of profound clutter. While my initial impression was of course correct, at a second glance however, what I found was that amid the clutter was an organization system that was delightfully surprising to find. Our first day there, we were told to chose 5 objects, put a post-it with our name on it and then come back later and draw these objects. When I chose 5 objects to draw I gravitated toward toys, either that I thought were fun or were similar to, if not exactly what I had at one point in my childhood had. While many of these did turn out to be simple objects, this was not a part of my criterion. This was maybe one of the most enjoyable parts about Elsewhere- seeing toys that I had not thought of in years. When I chose my space to document, I chose a space that was not as cluttered as some, not persay to avoid the superflous items but because I felt that it would be harder for me to draw if there wasn't as much stuff.I know these seems to be the antithesis of logic, but it does make sense. The first day of drawing there was a pile of items in boxes that were not there the following days that I drew. Because of the reduction of things to draw, to an almost minimalist extreme, I was able to focus in detail on a few amount of things and to draw specific things in detail. In the end, I feel like this made me concentrate more and have to pay close attention to what I drew in a way that I would not have had to, had I chosen a more cluttered space. When I began to focus on drawing simple things in greater detail, this was when I began to feel as though I had some creative license and found the project to be the most enjoyable. In the end, even though many of my drawings are flawed in proportion or aren't exactly true to what I saw, I feel that this brings out the integrity of Elsewhere.