Oh so nice to have the studio in shape for the new year.
Just a little tin flattening to do and it will be done. After it is flattened it will take up about a quarter of the space it does now.
I'm lovin' the clamp on lights. It's great to have more light.
Doing a bit of reorganizing. I work on it for a while, then feel overwhelmed and go inside the house and play a computer game or check email and FB. Then I go back to it. At this rate it will be a few weeks before I'll be back making tin pieces. I fear a trip to Ikea is in order, sigh.
Before.
After.
For years there's been this horrible light above my desk. It worked great for painting under. Now this set up that was cobbled together from the hardwear store and desk drawers is perfect. Less than $25. It helps that there was already an outlet in the ceiling.
BEFORE
AFTER.
6 garbage bags,1 trip to recycle & Goodwill, 3 piles for friends. Now to start phase 2.
Inspired by Nia Michaels' studio I decided to get a little more organized myself. So this weekend after the Dia De Muertos project was finished I started in flattening more tin. I love the way it looks.
Today I had the honor of meeting up with another tin artist, Nia Micheals, and seeing her studio. She came over here, then we went to her place. I had a blast talking with her and viewing her work.
Her work is beautiful, the color combinations and compositions are lovely and thoughtful.
Her space is well lit and very organized. These snapshots don't even come close to the experience of being there. Out of respect for her privacy there are no photos of her.
In the studio I am surrounded by junk. All sorts of stuff that has crossed my path.
It settles into it's new home as though it had grown there.
Seeing it makes me happy.
Even though I may not notice it every day.
Paper sushi for the afterlife from a trip Kerrie H. took, to Vancouver- not the afterlife.
One of the things I like about this junk is that it all has a life of it's own. One day it will be in a thrift store waiting to go to it's next life with someone else.
These are paper balls that you blow into to inflate and then they stay that way unless they get crunched. The material is more like what is used to make kites than paper. They have a translucent quality that changes their appearance as the light changes throughout the day. They're above my desk and remind me of candy, beach balls, Cost Plus and childhood. Looking at them gives me so much pleasure.
This is part of Robin Siegl's studio. It's very inviting and cozy, like a play house. I could be quite happy there,I know Robin is.
Robin has it well organized, there's lots of work going on. She uses rich colors to show what she sees when she goes rowing on the Duwamish. Click on this photo to enlarge it so you can see her excellent charcoal drawings on the back wall.
Here she is gessoing a support. Her space is in the C Building in Ballard where many artists have studios. They have an open studio event every second Saturday of the month in the evening. Currently there is a group show at Gallery 63 Eleven in Ballard. We went to see it today and it's swell.
A place for everything and everything in it's place. See the big garbage can? It's full of collected soda cans for making birds. Which are now available on Etsy.
