The Studio

I have been consumed with massive organization of the studio. It corresponds with a special edition from the publishers of Quilting Arts Magazine about studio re-organization. Helpful to look at to be sure, quite timely.

Until now I have always looked at maintaining some kind of order in the studio as a necessary evil second to what I create within it. But as I grow in my art making I have come to understand it is much more important than just a space in which I create quilts. It's not an office it's a studio which needs to inspire as much as anything.

My studio is on the third floor and is attic-like with slanted roofs. It is away from everything and a refuge. Although I live in the city so the direct view is out of the windows to the house next door the indirect view is to the backyard wooded area. It gets a lot of light.

Until now I have paid little attention to how I use this space. Over the years I have rearranged furniture and the like. Determined the best place for the sewing machine and added fabric storage. But I realized that when my father was diagnosed with cancer it became the create work when can, dump and run space. I had no idea how out of control it was. I became paralyzed to create within it.

I have ordered new cabinets, organized tools and supplies at least to various areas, recycled more paper than I care to admit, purged yards of fabric to give to children's programs found my checkbook and continue to consider improvements to the space. It's exhilarating. My design wall has always been a floor below in the extra bedroom we call the forbidden room because our cat Ilya likes to claw it. I may have figured out a way to incorporate it on the third floor which will make it much more conducive to intuitive design, everything will be in one place, currently I take piles of fabric downstairs to audition.

The walls are white but much of the furnishings are color, bright. For me it has to be fun, 60's bright, like my art. Photos another post I'm still getting the hang of posting them and I get frustrated.

I think part of my enthusiasm is a result of my artistic growth and seeking to develop a way of working, to establish a rhythm of working and the space I work in has to facilitate that. It doesn't need to be huge although that would be nice, it needs to function so that I am not looking for things but have immediate access to things. Or see something to spark something in me.

I have been thinking that my work is too thought out, too planned. I need to experiment but to do that I need to feel uncluttered I felt trapped in the clutter and trapped in my thoughts.

I think it gets down to moving up to the next level of seriousness about my art.