Friday, March 15, 2013

dismantling studios...

I have a Pinterest Board:  studios, writer's dens, workspaces  
subtitled: Large still-lifes in a sense, spaces set up to hold an energy field of thoughts and ideas... to contain all kinds of necessary materials... and to keep the muses in attendance. No wonder these spaces take on the kind of atmosphere that you can virtually feel...

Studio images from the pinterest site:

From the extravagant daydream of endless space and light...

http://rachelpalmer.tumblr.com/post/7409986229

To the idea of purpose built spaces for storage and order...

core.formula_pratt CES HL-5
both images found here: http://complexitys.com/art/from-our-flickr-network/#.UUHfKaVEwUU
core.formula_pratt CES HL-1

To the more likely arrangement of space... still generous size I must say....

studio/lotta jansdotter: 






























This week I was pouring over images of tiny homes and noted some studio like images which I put up on the Homage to the Seed facebook page where many people have"liked" these images also. 

Seems we all dream of the one special room to retire to to work, to think, to produce ideas... all these things. All week I have been pulling apart the small home studio space that I have occupied since moving to Brisbane in May 2008. Soon I can celebrate 5 years having been spent working in this small space... well ....assuming we are still living here. In this really small space I've conducted workshops at times, painted for shows, spent hours on my desk top computer and given birth to the homage to the seed project, a book, many online sites and artworks, journals and all that.
 
Since being over at the bigger studio its been more of a holding pace than anything. I've taken my lap top to the other studio to work and gone to cafes when needing online time... just to avoid spending hours on end in the old studio on the computer. It seemed to eat up all the space in the end for painting. For the last year Ive successfully worked on breaking that routine.

The whole reason for packing up and painting the walls is in order to rethinking how to set it up for the period the house will be on the market to sell. 

As if that wasn't disorienting enough I am also packing up the large studio space I have occupied during a 9 month residency at Percolator Gallery in Paddington.




When I first moved in to the Paddington studio in 2012 


Despite having completed an excellent period of work in that space, and being able to see the results of that era in the recent art exhibition at this gallery it is still a shock to dismantle this workspace.




The disorientation comes not so much from the physical reality of pulling everything down and packing it all up to store away... but in the emptying... or dispersing of the energy field that is all-important for a certain kind of thinking and working.

Dispersing is probably the most apt description. I'm a bit lost... a bit all-at-sea. Its not that there is no excitement about the thought of moving to the next place... but as it's totally unknown it is difficult to get too excited at this point.

Tonight I find myself taking stock. I saw my stop-gap option today... the third floor of a Storage Facility. When looking at the size of this tiny room Ive booked and think about making payments on a room for things to stand still in... it did suddenly seem sad to be about to put everything out of sight for a while. I had this feeling that the paintings should not be shut away... perhaps its OK that the paints and materials will be ... but the paintings need to live somewhere.

Really.... I do have my plan to get on with the book ... and that did mean putting the paints away for a time... so as much as I feel inclined to protest about all this change tonight... the are several much bigger things at play that are important and it certainly will be bringing  about some good changes.

The experience of seeing stuff everywhere in both these studio spaces is whats doing my head in. Things will progress... one has to remind oneself at times!

Interestingly I've had a change to think about new things in the last week or so ... during movement new things emerge. Some new things feel possible. I find myself peering into he unknown future wondering where I'll be in the second half of this year and on from there.


One of my temporary new office's: The Rogue Rennard ... a lovely cafe in Paddington.



And when it comes to working on cloth... there are 
plenty of tables around for the occasional burst of 
painting and such!



Well... who knows what's around the corner! 


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Blogging for me is an extension of keeping a journal which I have done in various forms over the decades. The difference being this is not a closed book! I like that it offers an opportunity to explore that which concerns me as an artist and as an individual about living and participating in this vastly complex, unquestionably exciting yet unnerving time in human history. Through the blog I hope to increase the possibilties for cross-pollination which I believe can strengthen the sense of being part of something both personal and universal that is vital, expansive and refreshing.