Working Studio

 Here is my studio with everything open and in use, not cleaned up and perfect. I use shoe storage boxes in the closet, labeled with things such as glue, silk flowers, tools, tape, pencils, small assemblage stuff, broken jewelry, and notepads.

Hanging on the back of the door is a shoe holder, the pockets contain things such as rulers, scissors, jars of gesso, glue gun, heat gun etc.

I love my old desk, it has been repainted many times, but I am pretty sure I am keeping it this way for a long time. The bottom 1/2 is a collage of my life.

 Here is my main work table. I work on multiple projects at a time and seem to only clean it up and put everything away when I am finished with all the works in progress. By the time I am done I am usually working on top of the piles or in 1" of clean space! I am so lucky to have a space that I can just leave everything and come back to it. (Except when we have guests and yes this is the guest room)

Here is my lovely fireplace and space heater. I use the bins to store the art pieces that I bring to shows. On the side of the house was an old dog run which we enclosed and now use for storage, it is lined with shelves that these boxes fit on. I have a show this coming Thurs. so I better finish everything up and get it in those boxes! To the left of the blue bins is a a cart with 8 drawers that I bought on clearance at Jo Anne's...I think it was regularly $79 and I got it for 19.99 because the bottom drawer is hard to open. What a deal! as you can see I'm not closing them anyway!

 Behind the door to the room fits my wonderful little black shelf that hold many of my miniatures. I use the coat rack on the back of the door for necklaces that can be cut up and used in art as well as aprons. (which I never seem to use)

The back wall with all the cubbies of "stuff" and collections.  My inspiration wall. Another question posed was "do you like working with music, tv or quiet?" Really all 3 work for me, depending on my mood, what's on etc. 

Thanks to Ricë for starting the  discussion on studios at createmixedmedia.com  

Studio Night!

L to R: Marianne, Me and Nancy.

So it's been awhile since we have had studio night and we were all missing the shared camaraderie.We got together at Marianne's house tonight as hers had air conditioning and it got up to 100 today. (We officially have A/C but so far have opted not to use it)

Nancy is working on a series of beetles, this one is looking mighty fine.

I was working on vacation collages for my scrapbook.

Marianne was working on several mixed media pieces.

This is the mess we left at her house...thanks MK for a great night!

Clutter or Inspiration part 2

Last night Nancy came over and we hung out in my studio since Marianne was out of town and Kristy wasn't going to the shared studio space across town. We were very productive while we listened to Obama in the background. Above is a picture of my spare table which I had to clear off for Nancy. On it are finished projects as well as some newly acquired items from the local thrift stores.

ABC, 123, what will I make today?
my tiniest miniatures, rubber stamps, pocket watch and pen nibs....
more rubber stamps and my collection of miniature vessels....
...my French collection....one of my fondest memories is traveling to Monet's Garden in Giverny and to Cezanne's studio in Aix-en-Provence with both of my daughters.

Clutter or Inspiration

I just finished reading the book "Art Making Collections and Obsessions" by Lynne Perrella. Which made me of course reflect on my own collections and obsessions and how it relates to my own art. I have also been reading "Living the Creative Life" by Rice Freeman-Zachary, and reading Rice's blog and thinking about where creativity comes from and how I get the ideas I do.

I wanted to show my studio and how sensory overloaded it is. The picture above shows a corner of one wall. Not only is my own art on the wall but that of both my daughters. I was their art teacher in elementary school and am quite happy that they are still making art while in their college-years.
My art and my treasures. I have a story for every piece...
...and every piece tells a story.
My Asian collection....
..and my mask collection. These all give me ideas and I now feel free to use these pieces in my art. As I get older and think about leaving this earth (Don't worry I'm not dying anytime soon...but I will turn 50 this year) I think about why am I saving all this stuff. No one will probably want it and I might as well use it in my creative endeavors.