A Word About Studio
May 6, 2009 by Janice · 10 Comments
This is my studio today. Yep. That’s a ziploc bag. Ziploc and its contents went to the ballet with me this weekend. Although I did not pull it out ( chose the camera instead) I could have easily done so. Today, I have a black canvas pencil bag courtesy of one of my pencil makers, a tin of very nice color pencils. A sharpener, an eraser, the Exacto. The little orange Rhodia pad . And four freshly torn to size extravagant pieces of Italian watermarked paper. All I need is a flat surface and some time. That’s it.
That’s it.
No questions, no doubts, no will I or won’t I. Just the things to get it done. And my friend, excitement. I get to take the little ink sketches inside the Rhodia pad to fruition. Do proper drawings of them. Still explorations, still play like I do not know what I am doing. But proper drawings with a bit of color.
I get to play with line and shape and form.
For me this is pure wonder. If I let myself go, if I listen. I’ll be capturing the thing I’m meant to capture. Simple? Well no. But let’s pretend for a minute that it is. This is another one of those get out of your own way things. Which is also why I wanted to show you how little it takes to make a studio just that, a studio.
I have a dream studio in my mind. In that one everything has a place and there’s an ease of working in the clean part, in the messy part and in the office part. It has great beautiful windows. There’s room for visitors on open studio days. A comfy sofa for them ( and for napping). It has a fridge. And oh why not, probably a massage table to keep me relaxed. It also has a fabulous view and it is located somewhere lovely to live and work.
I don’t have that one yet.
I have this one. And it is absolutely fine for what I am going to do today. The drawings will be exquisite to do. I could do the drawings at Starbucks if I wanted to walk over a few blocks. I could do the drawings wherever I have a clean flat surface and failing that I can put a piece of foam core under them and voila, flat surface, ready to go. Put the whole of it in a custom plastic bag I make for location work (shipping tape and plastic from the hardware store) and even the rain that threatens today would not be too much of a problem if I wanted a barrista to make my coffee.
Here’s the thing about studios. Never ever let studio or lack of whatever it is you think they are, keep you from your real work. Do not think for a second that you have to have the latest, the best, the most proper place or your muse will not work with you. That is pure, pardon me, bollocks.
Find a way. Just do the work. That’s studio.
It’ll be the same when I DO have my dream one. Because the work itself drives the studio, not the other way around. Make that connection and we are golden. Never use lack of studio as an excuse. That would be silly. Dog ate my homework kind of silly.
Hm, that massage table though.. hah.. that’s a new one for my wish list…and going into the notebook..artist is smiling at the thought.
Now, I have some paper waiting. And yes there will be music.
How about you? How flexible are you in where and how you can actually work?