so ya know, everything's been going along cool and the gang. but i am having some major consternation.
the main prob is my lack of organization. between the hotel/studio and home, i am working in about five different places. i am not centralized or set up anywhere. and this weekend, i haven't wanted to leave my new sofa (the $5 thrift score i tweeted about - yes! cute *and* comfy and thus a major lifestyle change). i love the hotel and having a studio that is not at home, but i don't have the space working for me ... yet.
so i think i need to separate out my activities, and then set up craft areas in specific locations so that i can get my shit organized. here goes..
1. stitching
2. knit and crochet
3. spinning
4. computer work - drawing, photoshopping, scanning, printing
5. [catch all for stuff i like to do but not as much, like machine stitching for softies, carding, and some other new ideas i'm playing with]
i like to sit stitching, knitting and spinning late, late into the night. at home with hub, not at the studio at 3am. so my studio time is more planning out numbers 1-3, which is basically activity no. 4. i suppose i could just work on computer stuff at the studio during the afternoons, and then do the down and dirty late at night. but surely it would be easier if i had all this stuff together in one place. still, it was *not* easier to find my supplies when it was all here at home because then it was shoved into every nook and not easy to find or access.
plus, all these stitchy activities are just a part of what i need to be doing. sarah was talking the other day about a model she's using where her activities are separated into creative, business, personal, and chores. creative work also means experimenting, reading, thinking, researching. so is it possible that the hotel venture is more about being part of this collective, and spending a few days a week there on creative and business work, rather than doing my stitching there all the time? and being part of the hotel also means creative conversations, renting out spaces, having shows and such... all good things, inspiring and full of possibilities.
i wonder how studio artists manage their creative schedules and supplies... doesn't it drive you nuts when you want to work from home, but don't have something you need? or you don't even know what you need because you can't see your materials? i would love to know more specifics about how you work in your spaces. where do you work? where and how do you keep your stuff? please share your tips and tricks for staying organized and productive! what else have you tried and what works best for you?
What works best for me and always has is NOT working outside my home. So my 'studio' if that's what you want to call it always have been a part of the family-room. I do this for precise the reason you've mentioned in your post , I just hate it to when I haven't got the right tool, color, photograph etc.. at arms length when I need it. What can be a creative bummer more then not being able to start a great painting because you haven't got the right brush with you? Before we moved into this apartment(last October) where we live now, we lived in a one room place, where we slept, ate, chilled AND where I worked my creative stuff. It was small and cramped, but somehow we made it work. Now I have my own huge working space upstairs in our new home, and I somehow can't get up there much to get some work done. There's always a reason why I have to stay downstairs, mainly our two small children who need to be watched and fed, etc...So now I moved my painting stuff into the living room again and guess what I even got some painting recently. And this while I’m with the kids. So for me personally the cramped thing works best. I have always had and will always prefer my creative working space to be inside my home. Even when my kids will be bigger I can’t imagine I would want to go out and into a studio somewhere in the city.
ReplyDeleteI work from home pretty much exclusively out of my tiny basement which i share with the laundry but have converted most of into a studio.
ReplyDeleteI have pondered more than once trying to rent a studio space that has proper ventilation so I might be able to work on more advanced metal techniques than I can at home, but it is just so nice to be able to hop upstairs and spend time with the hubs and to have EVERYTHING in one place. I'm a scatterbrained rattleass most of the time so even if I can't find it right away, knowing it is definitely amongst my shit SOMEWHERE is a good thing. :D I think if I were in your position I would treat the "away" studio as a place to work on things while other artists were also working there so you could get that feedback that is so important to an artist working from home. I envy that advantage you have for sure and a little extra space is always nice. Maybe if you just left large things like some extra stuffin' for your softies, or the types of things that aren't always your fave to work on around the house but would be more tolerable amongst others? good luck finding that balance! :D
dana and emily, i'm so glad you shared what works for you! dana, i love the idea of working right in the middle of the home, with everything going on around. a cozy basement studio would be great too! i think that if i had more space at home, i'd try to make it work. also, if i was working outside the home right now, i would definitely set up my stuff at home. at least writing this helped me think through some things and i feel a bit less stressed about it. it's a lifelong process (hopefully!) and will require adjustments every so often..
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