my working environment has been in a disarray for quite some time. some of my posts (including my profile picture) include shots of my dining room where most of my painting takes place. well i'm happy to say that my dining room has been returned to the dining part of our lives and the painting and everything else art-making wise has been appropriated to the "studio". we are fortunate in this city to possess a detached 2-car garage in which we store bikes, scooters, skateboards, luggage, hand me downs and everything else imaginable that does not fit in our flat - all of which resides in one side of the garage. my studio has occupied the opposite side and has been a STRUGGLE to keep as such due to the overflow of kid-equipment and debris that blows into the space. it's been a total nightmare to keep clean - which is why i do all my "mess-free" work indoors in our living space. i have recently however, converted my studio into a more private space and created a very obvious border between kid-stuff and my-stuff. i've even organized every single screw, stick of graphite, adhesive, solvent, pigment, paper and so on and am working on the labels simultaneous to completing this post. i thought i would include some shots so i can one day look back on the space in it's clean and orderly manner and "tisk" myself in the coming months as the orderliness reverses and it becomes more mine and less an idealized version of what that means.
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| this is the garage - in it's entirety. |
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| the studio - i forgot to mention the immense quantity of materials and supplies i own. these storage drawers are full of such |
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| inside looking out |
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| okay - this is the cave, it exists behind the wall (shown below) and is also full of gawd know what....just in case |
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| these added walls are from Open Studios 2 yrs ago, they used to be leaning and were unfinished wood - not no more |
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| the wall straight ahead covering the cave is a moving wall that i will be using to photograph the work on |
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| my most exciting addition is the TABLE in the middle - $25 from scrap and it extends to 10' and weighs is solid wood (and it's level. the garage resembles the topography of a sand dune with rolling hills - rather, our entire property is a sand dune. i guess after 110 yrs the buildings have "settled". anyway, my working surfaces are LEVEL - and i'm damn proud of it as a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into making it so. |
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| and yes, more "supplies" |
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| a view of my beloved work table. |
i think this was a bit ridiculous, but i feel it must be stated that this is the first time since my time in grad school where i had a work space that i can actually work in. the table is rad, i have so much room to lay things out, it's clean and i don't have to clean up before dinner or risk my sweet children's hands signing the works in progress, and i don't have to eat with splatters of paint under my water glass. i'm happy. chris is happy and i can't wait to get cracking!
