Posts Tagged ‘art studio’
Change is in the Air
I’m feeling a bit nostalgic today. This week I will start packing up my studio, print the rest of the blank shirts that are lying around, and figure out exactly what supplies are coming with me on the boat. Brian and I have a wedding to go to next weekend and, in addition, are making an early Thanksgiving trip to Virginia to see my parents and drop off the art supplies that will not be joining us on the boat. I have to be moved out of Sparks Studios at the end of the month and start helping Brian get the boat ready for our big sailing trip. The date is so close now that I am getting antsy. There certainly is a little more business to take care of at my studio, like another big panel that I am ambitiously trying to complete before the end of the month and a whole bunch of t-shirts to print for the gallery in Bluffton and to take with us on the trip. I am borrowing a hairdryer for this batch to speed it up!
Leaving the studio is a little bit sad for me, as it represents the new path I’ve chosen to follow as an artist. I’ve spent about as much time at my studio as I have on the boat over the past few months. It is my own little space to follow whatever inspiration or idea comes to mind, a place to think or be messy, to experiment, to be alone, and the place where I took my first real steps as an artist. I won’t say it was the ideal space for a painter (as the lighting was quite poor), but it suited my needs at the time and served me very well. Will I continue to practice art on the boat? I sure hope so, although I am not sure what medium will best serve me in such an unpredictable environment. I have a travel easel and plan to bring my sketchbook and some of my screen-printing equipment along, but there is no doubt that a few sacrifices will be made for the sake of space and practicality. We are talking about a sailboat here. In either case, I am hoping that this trip will encourage further artistic explorations with unexpected outcomes and I will continue growing as an artist. I suppose we will all just have to wait and see.
Also, in case you haven’t noticed, pictures of the panels have been uploaded into the Web-site gallery, except for the new panel I finished last week and the last one I am trying to finish up now.
*photographs courtesy of Ben Williams Photography.
In the Studio: Week 2
Brian and I are hopping a plane to the west coast this afternoon, so I wanted to post my studio update early this week. It’s been a short, but productive week. I spent about eight hours in the studio on Monday, five hours on Tuesday, and four hours yesterday. I worked on my sketchbook a little bit more, but more importantly, I started a new painting—and am nearly finished. This is a great sign, and I feel that all the extra time in my studio is paying off. Because I am sketching and color mixing everyday, I’m getting pretty fast at both of these tasks. I feel as though I am gaining confidence and precision. This may even prompt me to make a new studio goal: one painting a week. Judging from this week, I think it is a perfectly obtainable goal. Anyway, I’m off to the studio right now for an hour, to screen-print a tank top to wear on the trip. 
Hopefully I will get a post in during the trip, if not, then stay tuned for a big update when I get back. Ciao!
In the Studio: Week 1
It’s surprising how quickly Friday rolled around this week. I feel like I am busier now, than I was when I was working full time. I managed to put in time at my studio everyday this week (and will head over there after this post), although I didn’t quite stick to my schedule. All told, I spent about 20 hours there this week. I am really hoping to increase that number to 25 or 30, but this is the most time I’ve spent in there consecutively so I am not disappointed. Also, there were a couple of design projects, writing projects, and some research that I completed on the boat.
I think the most important project that I worked on this week was my artist statement. To begin, I was nervous about writing it because, to be honest, I didn’t really know where I wanted to push my artwork, and I didn’t really understand what my art was telling me. Writing the artist statement was probably the best thing I could have done for myself, to give me focus and direction and also some great motivation. I spent several days writing notes to myself about why I enjoyed making art, why I chose to use certain materials, what I wanted to explore, and how my work was a reflection of me. I also looked at several Web articles (this one was probably the most helpful) on the topic and read about the topic in The Artist’s Guide by Jackie Battenfield. Battenfield’s guide was actually quite helpful because it included some strong examples of successful artist statements. After generating about two full pages of notes, I sat down at my computer and tried to make sense of it all. I am pleased with the outcome (which you can read on one of my About pages), and I feel confident about it even though it is still a work in progress.
In addition to the artist statement, I stretched and prepared a canvas for a new painting, sketched some studies of my subject, worked on a couple pages of my sketchbook, printed a shirt for a friend, emulsified a clean screen to burn today, created a t-shirt design for my first commissioned project, printed out some photographs to use for various studies, and hung a bunch of inspirational images in my studio. Not too bad for my first week.