My Chickens are Famous!

Well, two of them, Buffy and Sylvie, ended up in STUDIOS magazine in an article I wrote about studio organization. For the unedited version of my article, click here.  But buy the magazine because it has loads of useful information and gorgeous photographs for inspiration.

The opening page spread

See Buffy and Sylvie on the right page, center.

I am excited to have my workspace featured in STUDIOS magazine!  And Buffy and Sylvie are delighted with themselves, preening for the press.  They offered interviews... (that's another post).  In any case, this issue of STUDIOS magazine is full of ideas and tips on studio organization, from the pristine neatnik approach to the more casual, but functional one.  So, whatever your style, you'll find something useful. I think mine is the only studio featuring a Buff Orpington and a Silver Laced Wyandotte.

Aside from describing my painting/collage studio organization, I included a side-bar on my encaustics studio.  If you are interested in getting started in encaustics, this gives you a blueprint for the basic at-home set-up.  I am teaching several encaustics workshops this summer and fall:  

• Plaster and Wax at Art Unraveled on August 6.
• Plaster and Wax at Art and Soul on October 2.
• Introduction to Encaustics at Art and Soul on October 2.
• Paper and Wax at Guilford Art Center on October 13 - 14.

No workshops on chicken husbandry, but if you are anywhere near Rupert, Vermont, let me know and you can meet The Girls in person!

Studio "Orgainization"

I agreed to have my studio included in this summer's issue of Studios Magazine, thinking that it would be a good excuse to tidy up and give my lack of organizational skills some serious thought.  Writing the article and having my studio photographed achieved both goals.  Taking a hard look at my relationship to organization and tidiness revealed the following insights:

•  First of all, it didn't take a monumental effort to tidy up, because I have made monumental efforts to create homes for everything in my studio.  Monumental because organizing does not come easily to me. Having a home for everything, even if I don't put things away, is immensely soothing.  Clutter doesn't bother me so much if I know I can put things away when necessary.  My efforts in recent years have really paid off.

•  I really can come up with organizational systems, like the wall I build on the back edge of my worktable you see above, if I put my mind to it and analyze the problem.  In this case, the problem was: everything gets buried on top of the worktable, and I can see it.  I need everything in front of me where I can find it and put it away.  Solution: put everything in front of me.

•  I have made some organizational units modular, so I can take advantage of awkward spaces and move them around easily.  My bookshelves consist of cubes built of pine.  I have them stacked at the end of my east worktable, but they also fit under the gable roof in a tight space behind the new wall (see the first post on Working Large).

 

I elaborate on all of this in the article in Studios Magazine, so I'll keep this short.  My point here is that I discovered I'm not as bad as I'd thought I was.  I'm sure an organized person could come up with more efficient solutions to my studio space, but I have come up with workable solutions.

Here are a few more shots of my "Working Large" space:

 The front gable wall:

 

 The New Wall, where I hang works-in-progress:

My makeshift rolling paint cart:

 

My latest work-in-progress: