Behind the scenes in my studio…
I’ve always dreamed about having space.
When I was young, my thing was roller skating, and all those dreams of space involved flat, wide expanses of concrete to skate on.
Now my thing is art, and the dreams are all about having a good space (and time) to create.
Virginia Woolf oh-so-quotably wrote about the necessity for women to have a room of one’s own in order to create (she also mentioned financial independence…hello teaching) Although her statement was about women and writing, it applies equally well to making any kind of art.
But what space is a good space? Where do you find, or make the room?
I haven’t always been lucky enough to have the perfect space, or that Woolfian room. But over the course of my art-making life, I have carved out creative space in any way I could.
I’ve had painting set-ups in the living rooms of share houses with a panel of plywood to protect the carpet from spills; a dank, windowless studio space above a shop where I had to buy an industrial work light so I could even see what I was making; a too-bright sunroom where I melted in summer, working stripped down to a bikini with sweat pouring off me; I’ve climbed ladders to paint murals in a bustling cafe while people watched and ate burgers; and many, many corners of kitchen tables/bedrooms/domestic set-ups where everything had to be packed away and then set up again each time I worked…
When we moved into our house in Reservoir, I got that room of my own: one of our spare bedrooms became my studio, a space all to myself, to make art. But… like a goldfish growing to fit the size of its tank, my ‘art stuff’ expanded…
First it was just me and my work table, making art…
Then I got more art materials…and some absolutely necessary (and some unnecessary) tools…and screens for screen printing……and my unsold paintings needed storing……and my art books needed a home……and a filing cabinet…and plan drawers…and a couple of pot plants…
10 years of working, making and accumulating much (extremely important and crucial) stuff later, it became apparent that I would need more space. I would need more room.
So, having grown out of the spare-bedroom home studio (now designated art storage, not art work space) we had my backyard addition built about a year ago.
I love it. Archer also loves it. While I work out there, he is also HARD AT WORK frisbeeing around the garden.
Travelling the path out to the studio from the house also allows me to take that psychological step away from the domestic into the creative space.
(Although who am I kidding…? I still take up room on the living room table with my embroidery work and art office…)
Communications with the main house are now deployed via text or carrier dog…Matt gets my sandwich order around 12ish on a Sunday…
Do I still dream of a studio ten times the size…? Absolutely.
But for now, this little backyard pod is my art-making home.
