Welcome to the third edition of The Pulse: an artist survey. This collaborative project aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals.
For links to the sites of the participating artists, please click here.
Today's question: Where does the magic happen? Tell us about the studio, room,corner, desk, table, floor, or wall where you make art and show us one photograph which somehow captures your creative space or a work in progress. The following is the last of four posts to answer this question.
Max Ackerson I do mostly all my work on my computer desk because I can keep all my stuff in the drawers and I can access to the net to look for art or anything that inspires me, it may be a little cluttered but it suits me perfectly.
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Deana Hager I have a work area set up in what we call "the stove room" (the room that houses our wood burning stove) BUT it really just "catches" things. I like to gather what supplies I need for a project and sit in the living room on my Lazy Boy reclining couch, put the foot rest up and do my thing. On a side table next to said Lazy Boy is my laptop computer. This is where I am online at all times. It makes it easier to multi task (watch tv, do art, play with my 3 year old...etc) Though my husband HATES this arrangement (he says he feels like he is married to a computer LOL or at least vying for its attention).
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Karen Cole Being empty nesters, my husband and I have the run of the place, yet, I chose the smallest room in the house, that's not a bathroom. I prefer containment. It keeps me focused and somewhat more organized, just because I have to be. Problem is, I work in so many different mediums, I can only work in one at a time. Sometimes I end up at the kitchen table or on the floor. What you see in the photo is one of my little corners of the world. "An artists studio should be a small space because small rooms discipline the mind and large ones distract it". -Leonardo da Vinci.
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Nancy Baumiller It all happens in my room, where it is quiet and I can spread out all my supplies right on my bed and everything is within reach to create my art!
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Marilyn Gallas Everything happens in my 10 x 10 office/studio. Part of the space is devoted to computer, printer, scanner, etc. The other part is devoted to all my artistic endeavors and holds all my paints, brushes, canvases, journals, ephemera, papers and who knows what else!
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Cynjon Noah Unfortunately, at the moment where the magic happens is VERY limited in size/space...it's a small desk in the back corner of the dining room, in a rental property down the road from our own place, that we share with several other folks.
We're currently in the midst of building our home (entirely by hand) which will have a private studio attached to it that will be accessible via the front porch and the second story bedroom balcony. It's tempting to put a fireman's pole in on the latter, though I'm not sure how practical that would be! I'm hoping by having the studio attached to the house, but not an actual room in it, I can somewhat contain The Neverending Sprawl of Supplies. One can dream, right? (one of the photos is of the outside of the house...where the ladder is is where the studio will be sometime soon!)
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Marion Bockelmann I´d LOVE to have a studio, but as I´m living in a one room flat (41,3 square yards) I only have my kitchen table to work on. The problem is that I like cooking and don´t have any room for that when my table is used for arty things. And of course I have to invite any guests to my bedroom because the kitchen is unbelievably messy most of the time ;-) I need the chaos to be creative. (photo attached: my "Secret" shadow box in progress)
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Ro Bruhn I'm very lucky I have quite a large studio that's part of the house. It's divided into three sections, my mosaic and heavy duty power tool section. My jewellery and painting area, then my textile, fabric and altered book section. Sometimes they all combine and become one big jumble, my husband refuses to enter without wearing a hard hat. My grandchildren enter and I have trouble finding them sometimes, just kidding.
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Terry Rafferty My space right now is a very small room in the house, about 7x10 feet. What's great about it is that you learn to be efficient and have only what you really need at hand. I use a french easel that I can fold up and put away when necessary, and a rolling kitchen cart that I found in a junk store to hold my supplies. A plant stand with a lazy susan on top works for holding still life setups. Reference photos or drawings get taped to the wall. This room is also my clothes closet and the guest room, so sometimes finding a path to the easel is interesting...
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Elizabeth Bunsen The magic happens anywhere and everywhere - but especially in the journal - I write and create 2 or 3 entries a day - first thing in the morning under the skylight on the round table covered with my rock collection... then walking - walking is where many an idea will take shape or envision its unfolding (and also dreaming)... then depending on the weather I go into the spacious town studio and make creative messes and/or take up my office hours at the beach and journal as I practice deep listening. I feel as if I am always "documenting" my life and experience - and this better describes what I do now more appropriately than "making art".
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Steph Brouwers The magic can happen in different places .... my bench, the floor, the garage, outside... When I make jewelry, I like to use this old anvil and this old vice... they give a bit of their souls to my jewelry.
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Bridgette Guerzon Mills I just made a huge move from Seattle to Chicago and am working on setting up my studio right now. It is a huge undertaking! I feel like I really must have everything just so and have everything organized. I just cannot create in chaos. And right now my studio is chaos. So instead of showing a picture of that, I am sharing a picture of a wall I had dedicated in my old studio as the "Art Wall". I was preparing for my first solo show and I used that wall to hang up pieces as I finished them. I had a very small studio space at the time and you can see the easel to the left, the art table to the right and a little easel on the table. I used every available space I had!
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David Castle Earlier this summer I purchased and opened my own studio space in Denver’s Santa Fe Arts District. This was an 8-month project and I am thrilled to finally be in my own (air-conditioned!) space for creating. It’s a rather small floor space, but I have external windows and 18 foot ceilings, so it feels big enough and perfect for creating.
Before
After
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Valerie Foster Well, perhaps there's some magic in my art, but there is NO magic in my art room. It's a total mess, due to being very small, and having waaaaay too much art "STUFF" to fit into it. I'm sooo not proud of my art room, and find it amazing that I can actually get any art done at all in it. In fact I often think it has a detrimental affect on my art, or at least my mood. Sometimes I'm in the mood to do art, and walk into my messy, cramped room, and get so discouraged, I walk right out again, and go do something else. So no, my art room is not magical at all, and I'd prefer not to submit a picture of it. It would be too embarrassing for me.
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Paul Sears As much as possible, all the magic happens in-camera. Or I should say the magic happens in the outside world. I just try to get out and soak in as much diverse experience as possible, and look for killer moments when I'm out.
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Gina Petterson I have a room that i never seem to be able to work in because it is so crowded, all of the little embellishments, books and paints want to speak at the same time. I will try and disconnect by going on line and hop back and forth between my desk and my chair until I can get a fix on the direction I want to go in. There are not too many altered artists here in Sweden, especially in my small area where I haven't met anyone yet.
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Kathleen Botsford My messy studio. ( I confiscated the sunroom from my children about 5 or 6 years ago.) It was much neater when it was a playroom for them!
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Sarah Whitmire My whole house is pretty much overrun with finished and unfinished art, art that has been sold and art that needs to be packaged up for one reason or another. I have two main work stations though. My main area is my office/studio where my desk and computer is. I do the majority of my projects here. I also have my kitchen area which holds overflow paints, fabrics, found objects, finished work for sale and is also home to my largest Easel and long work table for when I want to work on bigger projects.
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Joanna Olson This room is an extension of my kitchen (I'd given up thinking I'd ever use it for actually eating out of. It's a lovely light room full of the things I love having around me. (I do anything that requires noise or the use of a torch in the basement). My computer is in the far corner and is where I start my day (after watching my design shows on cable TV, I'm only moderately ashamed to admit). As you can see the table in the foreground is my jewellery (Canadian spelling) worktable, smack dab in the middle of my easel and paint supply table which moves around the room depending on where the sun is (or isn't). Something I'm missing is a really good large table to put watercolor sheets onto. In that case I cover the dining room table and prep backgrounds and anything that requires broad sweeping brush strokes. Once the painting is underway and the work becomes tighter I can paint in this more restrained area. Larger works in oils or acrylics are not so much of a problem because they are upright in an easel. And then I enjoy baking too, my other creative outlet so this room really works for me.
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Lisa Dalke We have an art room in the middle of the house. I say we because all are always welcome to come and art with Lisa. The room is surrounded by windows, music, animals, junk food, coffee and lots and lots of art supplies.
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Trudi Sissons I set up my garage studio beginning with a broken door set on two old trunks next to my family’s old dining room table, With the overhead door wide open, I have natural light and fresh air for 8 out of 12 months. I am almost always humming to music and bird watching. It’s almost packed to the rafters now. I dream of a larger studio with an enormous table, wide wooden planked floors, white washed open beams and floor to ceiling windows. I know it’s waiting for me.
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Doreen Grozinger When my son moved out, I claimed his bedroom as my art room. I built him a platform bed which has conveniently become a large work space for me. I have one main area I sit at to work and try to keep it maintained, free of clutter, which is pretty challenging. The large table tends to be the collection area, with half-started, incomplete projects. I also have a meditation and journal area I work. Here I may pull an inspirational card, and journal or draw in my response to it.
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Roxanne Stout My studio is a sun room with lighting that comes in from three directions; the north, east and west. From the windows in the summer months I look out over a flower garden and lush trees in many shades of green. During the winter months I look out on to the Klamath River and watch the ever-changing sky through the sculptural branches of the now bare trees. This is a wonderful "nest" for me because from here I can watch the flights of thousands of birds that migrate along the Pacific Flyway and rest on our river and refuges. I work on a round oak, pedestal table. I get paint on it often, and it is getting pretty beat up. This table gets really messy. Sometimes, like now, I have to spread out over other tables and shelves, especially if I am using acrylics or making collages.
This is a shot of my work space. I usually have everything spread out, leaving only a small area to work in. On the bottom right hand corner is the beginning of my newest project called "rejoice." The two pictures on the left are my first two of a series " the timeless woman," from photographs I took in france this summer.
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Seth Apter My work space is filled with large and small cabinets, boxes, and drawers. These in turn are filled with art supplies, paper, found objects, ephemera, rubber stamps, and other assorted artistic flotsam and jetsam. Being surrounded by these objects always gives me inspiration.
Here you get a glimpse of the books on the wall in the restroom. It also shows some of the equipment on the tables down the middle of the MIDDLE section of the studio: Zyron, copy machine, coil binding machine, hot press, sewing machine. And you can glimpse Iris carts under the copy machine table... there are three which have collections of dice, dominoes, compasses, small boxes, encaustic supplies, and other supplies. On the wall outside the restroom is a bookcase for my graphic art book collection and clip art books.
Here is the art sink (significantly dirty and painty!), refrigerator, and microwave. Not visable next to the sink there is a toaster oven dedicated to clay. Nothing in this room is used for food consumption except the microwave and refrigerator. (Of course, my batch of walnut ink in in the frig door - hmm, hope no one drinks it. LOL. The tall, white folding table across from the sink is on rollers and is where I stand to do work when I need a large flat area.
Unfortunaltely, this area is where I've begun to stack two layers of furniture -- geeze, I hope I don't do that all the way around the studio! Yikes. This is my bin storage on rollers. I have rubber stamps and ephemera in these 21 bins. The popcorn cartons hold my decorative and handmade paper. to the left of the bins is an Iris cart with my most used rubber stamps and my heat guns.
Here is where you can see what's behind the bin storage . . .an entertainment center with some of my favorite jewelry-making and art books, my cd player, storage rack with my cheap acrylic paints, two shelves of old books to use in collage, and a glass front display case with my antique photo albums and a few art gifts. Behind the Iris cart is a cabinet where I keep a shredder, hot pots for encaustic, a light box, etc.
Deana Hager I have a work area set up in what we call "the stove room" (the room that houses our wood burning stove) BUT it really just "catches" things. I like to gather what supplies I need for a project and sit in the living room on my Lazy Boy reclining couch, put the foot rest up and do my thing. On a side table next to said Lazy Boy is my laptop computer. This is where I am online at all times. It makes it easier to multi task (watch tv, do art, play with my 3 year old...etc) Though my husband HATES this arrangement (he says he feels like he is married to a computer LOL or at least vying for its attention).
Karen Cole Being empty nesters, my husband and I have the run of the place, yet, I chose the smallest room in the house, that's not a bathroom. I prefer containment. It keeps me focused and somewhat more organized, just because I have to be. Problem is, I work in so many different mediums, I can only work in one at a time. Sometimes I end up at the kitchen table or on the floor. What you see in the photo is one of my little corners of the world. "An artists studio should be a small space because small rooms discipline the mind and large ones distract it". -Leonardo da Vinci.
We're currently in the midst of building our home (entirely by hand) which will have a private studio attached to it that will be accessible via the front porch and the second story bedroom balcony. It's tempting to put a fireman's pole in on the latter, though I'm not sure how practical that would be! I'm hoping by having the studio attached to the house, but not an actual room in it, I can somewhat contain The Neverending Sprawl of Supplies. One can dream, right? (one of the photos is of the outside of the house...where the ladder is is where the studio will be sometime soon!)
Ro Bruhn I'm very lucky I have quite a large studio that's part of the house. It's divided into three sections, my mosaic and heavy duty power tool section. My jewellery and painting area, then my textile, fabric and altered book section. Sometimes they all combine and become one big jumble, my husband refuses to enter without wearing a hard hat. My grandchildren enter and I have trouble finding them sometimes, just kidding.
Terry Rafferty My space right now is a very small room in the house, about 7x10 feet. What's great about it is that you learn to be efficient and have only what you really need at hand. I use a french easel that I can fold up and put away when necessary, and a rolling kitchen cart that I found in a junk store to hold my supplies. A plant stand with a lazy susan on top works for holding still life setups. Reference photos or drawings get taped to the wall. This room is also my clothes closet and the guest room, so sometimes finding a path to the easel is interesting...
Elizabeth Bunsen The magic happens anywhere and everywhere - but especially in the journal - I write and create 2 or 3 entries a day - first thing in the morning under the skylight on the round table covered with my rock collection... then walking - walking is where many an idea will take shape or envision its unfolding (and also dreaming)... then depending on the weather I go into the spacious town studio and make creative messes and/or take up my office hours at the beach and journal as I practice deep listening. I feel as if I am always "documenting" my life and experience - and this better describes what I do now more appropriately than "making art".
Bridgette Guerzon Mills I just made a huge move from Seattle to Chicago and am working on setting up my studio right now. It is a huge undertaking! I feel like I really must have everything just so and have everything organized. I just cannot create in chaos. And right now my studio is chaos. So instead of showing a picture of that, I am sharing a picture of a wall I had dedicated in my old studio as the "Art Wall". I was preparing for my first solo show and I used that wall to hang up pieces as I finished them. I had a very small studio space at the time and you can see the easel to the left, the art table to the right and a little easel on the table. I used every available space I had!
Gina Petterson I have a room that i never seem to be able to work in because it is so crowded, all of the little embellishments, books and paints want to speak at the same time. I will try and disconnect by going on line and hop back and forth between my desk and my chair until I can get a fix on the direction I want to go in. There are not too many altered artists here in Sweden, especially in my small area where I haven't met anyone yet.
Joanna Olson This room is an extension of my kitchen (I'd given up thinking I'd ever use it for actually eating out of. It's a lovely light room full of the things I love having around me. (I do anything that requires noise or the use of a torch in the basement). My computer is in the far corner and is where I start my day (after watching my design shows on cable TV, I'm only moderately ashamed to admit). As you can see the table in the foreground is my jewellery (Canadian spelling) worktable, smack dab in the middle of my easel and paint supply table which moves around the room depending on where the sun is (or isn't). Something I'm missing is a really good large table to put watercolor sheets onto. In that case I cover the dining room table and prep backgrounds and anything that requires broad sweeping brush strokes. Once the painting is underway and the work becomes tighter I can paint in this more restrained area. Larger works in oils or acrylics are not so much of a problem because they are upright in an easel. And then I enjoy baking too, my other creative outlet so this room really works for me.
Trudi Sissons I set up my garage studio beginning with a broken door set on two old trunks next to my family’s old dining room table, With the overhead door wide open, I have natural light and fresh air for 8 out of 12 months. I am almost always humming to music and bird watching. It’s almost packed to the rafters now. I dream of a larger studio with an enormous table, wide wooden planked floors, white washed open beams and floor to ceiling windows. I know it’s waiting for me.
Doreen Grozinger When my son moved out, I claimed his bedroom as my art room. I built him a platform bed which has conveniently become a large work space for me. I have one main area I sit at to work and try to keep it maintained, free of clutter, which is pretty challenging. The large table tends to be the collection area, with half-started, incomplete projects. I also have a meditation and journal area I work. Here I may pull an inspirational card, and journal or draw in my response to it.
