The Creative Studio is Done-ish!

My creative studio is NOT done… And I am okay with it… But it is done-ish.
Let me re-phrase… The studio is done enough for now, and it’s time to focus on other projects (and create art). My first post about the studio was back at the beginning of the pandemic in April of last year. I somehow thought in my head that I would have the entire space wrapped up by summer (of 2020). But looking back on that first post about the studio plans, I can see that in the final paragraph, I wrote “This will take as long as it takes.” And it has…. Much longer than I had hoped, but as long as it needed to take.

Really, the studio is about 90% done…. Which…. Isn’t that the point where nearly every project I do gets to before I move onto other things? I don’t think I am alone in this conundrum of not getting things finished all the way. So, I may not have completed everything I wanted to get done, but in that post I listed seven specific things I planned for the studio and I can say that to some varying degree, I managed to get all seven of them done. For reference, it may help to peruse that post first.

The seven things I wrote about include: 1 – Desk, 2 – Martha Stewart Storage Cabinet, 3 – Stainless Printing Bench, 4 – Floating Table, 5 – Cork Inspiration Wall, 6 – Lighting, 7 – Paint color

Of course, over the past year, my needs for my space have shifted. Not just once, but twice. When I initially planned my studio space, the idea was that I was going to set things up so that I could work on my woodcut print making. This included a printing bench and ample room to work on my woodcuts. Then last fall, I shifted my focus to stained glass and acquired everything I needed for a stained glass studio (photo above). This altered my original plans for the space, but I managed to make it all fit in. Then earlier this year I had my huge Aha! moment when I discovered that my medium was not woodcut printmaking or stained glass, but Generative Art (see last post). This caused my entire plan to shift again and I adjusted. Now, I have a printing bench, I have a stained glass studio set up, and I have my Generative Art set up, all in the same space.

Lets take a look and see how things turned out… But to keep it interesting and reverse the order of things.

7 – Paint Color

I selected Farrow and Ball’s ‘Moles Breath’ for my wall color (shown in my inspiration shot above)… And then went to Benjamin Moore and had them color match it for me in their paint (I couldn’t justify $120 a gallon for my creative studio). I am quite happy with how it turned out overall. When the color went up last fall, I had a couple of friends express concern that it would be too dark and gloomy… They somehow seemed to forget that I actually like dark and gloomy, although I prefer to call it dark and moody. I was also asked if the color would impact my work, and it really doesn’t. I am not doing still life paintings where a lot of light is more important. As for the floor, I hadn’t yet determined what I was going to do, but my solution turned out perfectly. I covered the entire room in 3/8 plywood and then painted it with Benjamin Moore Cottage Red (HC-184) from their historic colors collection. I shared all about this in a post last September (of 2020).

6 – Lighting

My vision for lighting didn’t quite turn out as I had in my head, but I am still quite happy with it, and I definitely captured the original idea. Conduit and porcelain sockets. I originally planned on having nine individual sockets, but as I began to put it all together, I realized that was overkill. In the end, I settled on a simple, but effective solution using only five lights. The bulbs are Phillips Warm Glow LED bulbs, which if you are a fan of dimmers, like I am, are fantastic in that when you dim them down, they shift in color temperature the same way traditional incandescent bulbs do. Which means, the become warmer as they get dimmer. It is a much more natural feeling than dimming standard LED bulbs. A tad bit pricier, but so worth it.

5 – Cork Inspiration Wall

This is one thing that was altered as my plans shifted. I had planned on having it fill almost the entire northern wall, but the stained glass set up, took up that space. So, I downsized it a bit and put it on the opposite wall. It works great! I love it! Yes, I wish I had more square footage of cork, but this is still a fantastic amount to work with.

4 – Floating Table

I did it! I built a large table on wheels with storage underneath. My original plan was for it to be four by six feet, but as I worked on the room, I realized that was just too large. I wanted a large work surface that was counter height and could be moved about the room. My final table ended up being 43″x63″, which is still a large work surface. I used an oil based enamel on the top for durability (Benjamin Moore Dragons Blood CW-320) which works very well in my space. I am very happy with how this table worked out. I didn’t initially know how I was going to use the space underneath it, but it turned out to be the perfect place for paper storage.

3 – Stainless Printing Bench

This is another area where my plans shifted. I wanted a stainless steel bench for printing because it made clean-up much easier. I bought a restaurant kitchen worktable last year, and it has been perfect for holding things and while I may not be doing woodcut print-making on it… It does hold my laser printer. So, I guess it is still a printing bench of sorts. Honestly, this area still needs work. It tends to be the place where I pile stuff up, but it is very good to have around.

2 – Martha Stewart Storage Cabinet

When I shifted my focus to stained glass, there was no longer any room for Ms Stewarts cabinet in the main studio space. I still needed it for storage, so it was relegated to the back room. As you can see in the photo above, it is doing what it was intended to do, just not in the studio. Full disclosure…. I cleared the top off just so I could take the photo, and afterwards, I put all the crap back on top of it. The whole back room of my studio is a mess at the moment, I hope to get it under control by the end of the year.

1 – Desk

And finally…. The desk… My desk actually went through a couple of iterations in the past year. First, I bought an old drafting desk on FB Marketplace last year, thinking this would be the perfect work surface for working on my woodcuts. I liked it, but found it to be a bit unsteady when using it. When I shifted to stained glass, I just held onto the drafting desk as it was good enough for my needs. Then when I discovered my passion for generative art, I knew that the drafting desk was not going to work at all. I needed a desk for working on my computer along with enough space for my robotic drawing machine (pen plotter). That is when I found my current desk at IKEA. It has a return on the right side which works out perfectly for my pen plotter, and provides ample room for doing my work.

So there you have it… Ta-Dah! My 90% done-ish creative studio. There are other areas which need work. You will notice that there is not paint on the wall in the corner by the window. That is because the plaster needs repair, and I am going to have it done next year when we hire plaster repairers to fix some plaster elsewhere in the house. Also, I started to strip the door with plans to refinish it. That is part of the 10% which I will get to eventually. For the short term, I may just paint it to match the walls… Or not.

I still have a few other things left to do such as hanging some more shelves for books and supplies. But overall, I am very happy with the space. And most important is that I am using it. I mean really using it! They say that in order to be an artist, one must make art. After my February AHA moment, I began to create art at a pace like I never have before. I have been more prolific with my art in the past nine months than I have in the previous 30 years. Even with my nearly three months in California helping my Dad, I have managed to churn out more than 250 drawings. Some of which are available in my Etsy Shop. (Use this link to get 15% off until December 31st)

A few more photos…

And finally… Two things… First, after nearly three years of delays, I am planning to dive head first into working on our parlor in January. I am planning to do a post about it as a refresher beforehand, but just know that I am more ambitious than ever to get this room done.

The second thing… You may have noticed that there is a red light in each window of the studio. I put them up recently as my calling card to the world. For many years, starting in the 1990s in Seattle, I had two red lights in the window of my apartment. Later in Chicago, when I lived on the 29th floor of a high-rise on Lake Michigan in Chicago, you could always identify my apartment in the middle of the 55 story building from as far as a mile away. They sorta became my trademark. So, if you are walking or driving around South Philly…. And you stumble upon my house… Just know that creative things are happening here.

Till next time. . .

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