Hey! This is my first post here, and I want to talk about my first studio space a little before I get into anything else. It’s been a time.
My studio space has existed for two years now. It became a necessity during the pandemic when my wife Kristan and I were both working from home in our one bedroom apartment and going stir crazy. I’d never had my own studio space until this basement workshop came into my life, and it has taken a lot of time to build it out so it feels good. I’m almost there. The transition definitely slowed my drawing and printmaking output, which felt strange, but it was nice to focus on a different kind of work.
It takes awhile to make shelves and desks and all the other studio fixtures. I’m still pretty green as a woodworker, and I didn’t want to just screw some boards together or prop everything on stacked cinder blocks (as the entire room is already brick and concrete). The space needed lots of warming up, aesthetically. I had to figure out how to design it so I could perform a myriad of different tasks in the same space and also have it look good enough that I wanted to actually be in it. With an almost nonexistent budget, I salvaged discarded wood of all kinds from the trash in the alleys. I made countless trips to multiple hardware stores looking for deals, saved up for more supplies, and moved everything in the studio around a hundred times like a sliding tile puzzle.
There wasn’t much information to be found on the topic of studio spaces for radically different disciplines. Adam Savage’s videos were the most relevant. He talks about “shop infrastructure” a lot. Woodworking can take over any space quickly, but that guy does everything in his shop so I knew it was possible. My music gear needed to be sectioned off and protected from dust. Printmaking is not a friend of dust, either, so that had to be considered. One set of west-facing windows meant I had to use the precious natural light in the best way possible and position things accordingly. I made a desk, a workbench, a few pairs of sawhorses, a tool wall, a hanging tool cabinet (which replaced the tool wall), a modular bookshelf, a covered platform for my music gear, a lumber cart, a lumber rack (which replaced the cart), another desk, another hanging cabinet, a printmaking cart, a print drying rack, and more stacking shelves.
It’s a lot. I was only able to do it all because - in addition to my freelance work - I work for my friend Tim’s studio Field of Grass. It reduces the pressure to churn out my own work and has allowed me to be more thoughtful about what I put into the world. A good thing. I feel like I’m back in a groove now, making lots of stuff despite feeling like society is collapsing.
I’ve recently survived a botched filling that lead to a root canal (and a crown and another filling). I’m still undefeated at dodging cars in the crosswalk - barely. I guess it’s tough to be creative right now (or feel like that matters at all), but I will eat ice cream in the sunshine while the sunshine is here, and try to make things that don’t exist.
Art objects coming up: A sticker pack, a patch, and some new relief prints. Thanks for reading.