(Video link here.) They Might Be Giant’s just released their new song I Made a Mess, which is a sort of homage to something we strongly believe (#12 in our Manifesto): Making a mess is an essential part of improvising.
Here, then, is our visual ode to wondrous in-flux workspaces of some spectacular creatives to view while you listen.
Alexander Calder’s studio…

and his astonishing desk…

Einstein’s was pretty swell…

…as was Steve Jobs…

Francis Bacon’s studio is curiously sublime…
James Rosenquist’s studio is full of ACTION

Here’s our own day’s mess in our old space, top (styled for a photo) and bottom (real!)
Life, and Creativity (even in our heads) can get WILD.
I just made a mess
I don’t know how
I did but now
the whole place is
a wreckI made a mess
and now I guess
that somehow I
have got to clean
it upIt’s a catastrophe
from ceiling to floor
from wall to the other wall
and nothing was spared
what wasn’t destroyed was spilled
and what wasn’t spilled was
melted or scribbled on
from ceiling to floor
from wall to the other wallI made a mess
I don’t know how
but now I have
a big mess on my hands
I’ll need a ton
of mops and glue
and soap and towels
and paint and
power toolsTrying to clean it up
is making it worse
whatever I try to fix
gets even more wrecked
no matter how much I wash
it looks even messier than
it did before
I’m making it worse
by trying to clean it upI made a mess
and now I guess
that somehow I
have got to clean
it up
I love all these creative (if messy) workspaces. AndI really like the Amazon box on your former counter space-very real. I relate deeply!