Our Art Space - A Spring Cleaning!

New leaves are being born from the branches that a month ago were bare, and the day was beautiful in Portland today.  The sun and 80 degree weather seemed to get me going on a spring cleaning kick.  The studio area is now organized and ready to mess up once again with paint, ink, charcoal dust and random pencil shavings that somehow escape.

Our Art Studio.  Ivan insisted on making a cameo pose on the drawing table.



So for now, my brain sought some order and recieved some today (referring to "My Secret Obsession").  I enjoy our art studio being in our home.  It makes it easy to create on a whim and whenever we please.  No one cares what we wear while getting there either which saves us from a lot of judgemental stares and sideways glances if we happen to get lazy about finding a matching pair of comfy shoes.  Last week I wore a monkey slipper with a plaid slip-on.

Secret Obsession

I have a confession to make.  I have a secret obsession with looking at artist studios and how they are organized.  I am fascinated. 

I know this may sound especially lame.  It's not sexual or romantic or exotic.  It's not super weird like an obsession of sleeping with a hairdryer or drinking gasoline.  However, I think an artist studio is highly personal and an intimate way of seeing how different brains work.

Here are some artist studios that caught my eye online (the last one is of Francis Bacon's studio in London):

Some of the studios are tidy with clean surfaces all around.  Others are messy and cluttered.  When I look at these images, I think about the way the artists work and think.  It's easy to spot those who work in a soothing, calm manner and others who prefer a more rapid speed teetering on the brink of chaos. 

Looking at artist studios is going beyond looking at interior design.  Interior design can tell a lot about what people enjoy and what moods they favor, but any space that one creates in tells more about how their mind actually works.  It can tell a great deal about how they organize information and what comforts and inspires them.

It doesn't have to be an artist studio either.  Any space that one creates in can tell a story of how their mind works - my Dad's garage (organized logically, with a bit of clutter on the workbench, but he always knows EXACTLY where to find everything!), my Aunt's Connie's Kitchen (designed with an amazing organizational system with everything having it's own space - it's absolutely amazing and I've never seen any other space better organized anywhere!) and my Great Grandfather's pole building (perhaps could have been seen on hoarders, and yet, the man was able to find everything with amazing efficiency).

What does your creative space say about how you organize information or the way you work?  Is there an enviroment where you have trouble creating?