New Studio

I have excellent news! I finally have my own studio here in Winnipeg. It's not much, but it's got plenty of room for all my toys, and more importantly, it's a place for me to work. I've hardly done anything in the past few months, between being in school and having no proper space to use. BUT that should change very soon, because now I have a dedicated spot, and need to justify the rent. So new projects/old projects I haven't worked on in a long time should be coming up soon!

A New Studio

I'm finally moved into my new, tiny condo. I really like how it's turned, including my postcard collection: 

The print on the top right that says 'People Are Allowed Not to Like It' is one of my favourite pieces. I'm going to get it framed whenever I move somewhere with a bit more wall space. I love it after going to art school, where we had to very snobbily condemn such mundane vocabulary. We only used 'succesful' or 'unsuccesful', never 'good' or 'bad', and 'like' was reserved for the uncultured and uneducated, how dare they.  Though, one should note that this does not apply to the food, as I also have a postcard that says 'Make Your Own Damn Dinner'.

My studio now consists of the eat-in nook (ledge, to be more accurate) in the kitchen, and the cupboard underneath it:

That's the cleaned up and organized version. You don't even want to know what's in my storage room. There will be no painting while I live here, only nice, flat, easily stored drawings and prints. I've got a big roll of newsprint, and I'm going to spend a lot of time simply working on some drafting skills. Here's my first little drawing. It has actually turned out very well, despite the fact that I can't find a pencil sharpner. I'm a little disappointed it isn't on better paper, in fact. Why can't I ever find a pencil sharpner? I do have about 30 pencils, however, so I'll simply go through them instead.

I can See How This Will Quickly Become an Obsession

Has anyone tried Pintrest? It's like Google Images, but filtered so it's only good stuff and I can save whatever I like. I've been on there almost non-stop for a couple of days now. I've got a board for my dream house, and one for book arts ideas.

Speaking of dream houses, and to explain why I haven't posted much recently, I bought a little condo! I'm in the middle of packing everything up and having a massive anti-hoarding session because it's much smaller than my house. I take possession at the end of the week, and am looking forward to setting up some kind of studio (or at least a work station) in my new place. It's very cozy (read: tiny) so we'll see what I can come up with.

 I've been thinking that to celebrate, and because I'll soon be on my 200th post (even at this slow rate), that I should do another giveaway. I have no idea what yet, but if anyone has a feasible idea? I was thinking a print or something.

How Do You Find Anything in That Mess?

This was my studio. Yikes! I couldn't find some paper, go figure, so it was time to shift everything out to the tv room, sort it, toss it, and put the good stuff back. I got an accordion folder and now all my paper is even in sorted by colour. I didn't just find my paper (at last), I also found:

4 half-finished canvases
A cheque for $157
An extremely large dead spider
Enough fabric scraps to fill an entire black garbage bag
Several finished drawings I'd been missing for about 5 years
A whole lot of broken glass, which is puzzling and a little disturbing since I'm always barefoot
Two sheets of extra mat board
Notes for a funny tv show a co-worker and I created when we were bored one day
About 10 pads of small note-paper and even more in post-it notes

This is the after. I don't know if the photo really lets you see just how much cleaner it is, but I got rid of a giant garbage bag, a giant box of recycling, moved all the finished painting (now the rest of the basement needs some sorting), moved all the photos/cards/books to my writing desk, and organized everything else into baskets so I can find it. Now the only thing left on the art desk is what I'm actually working on. And now might be able to finish!

Creative Confusion

Thanks to three epic fails in the art department, today's post is all about my studio. It's the largest room in my (admittedly very small) house and yet it is always always the most cluttered. God knows why, I arrange everything before I start working and have to have all my supplies in their place and colours all arranged in order before I start working, and yet, here it is. At least I have a fan now! That hasn't been attached to anything, but there it is. I love having things all over the walls, though. Experiments, old sketches, photos I'm going to paint someday, my postcards, random quotes, post-it notes. I love post-it notes. I'm terrible at throwing things away just in case I need it for inspiration someday. The rest of my house is practically spartan, but here... There's an accordion folder in there somewhere with my stash of little bits of paper. I got it once it a fevered rush to get organized. I don't think I labeled the different sections. I now prefer my computer folder called 'Things to Paint" full of photos I've taken off my friends on facebook.
Once upon a time, when it was new, it looked like this. You can see where I just broke my coffee mug. A taste of things to come, I suppose.