A Clean Slate
I spent last weekend covered in sawdust. By the end of it, I had an entirely new studio setup. Some of you who know me well, know that during the summer months, I move my home studio into my 3-season porch (although, living in Northern Minnesota, it’s really only like one season).
All summer long, my studio is extended from the main living space into a great big spacious porch. Our plants get to move out there too for extra light and during market season, it houses a lot of my paintings and crates full of prints and cards.
But as the days get colder, I have to start considering bringing everything inside — my trusty space heater is no match for our 30-year old uninsulated porch. But as my business has grown, it has taken up significantly more space. So after a lot of time standing inside our house with our hands on our hips, we decided it’s time to reconfigure the house to fit our needs. That’s when Spencer said, “It’s time to build a work bench.”
So that’s what we did. I spent the last week sanding and varnishing the plywood tops and Spencer cut and sanded all the legs, created shelves, and even a section that I can roll out into my work area for framing and cutting matboard — if you know him, you know he’s REALLY handy with stuff like this. So of course, he did a phenomenal job designing it and putting it all together and I’m so happy with how it turned out. I also found that the act of creating it and putting it together did something for me I didn’t know I needed.
My practice had been feeling a little stuck during this transition between market season and autumn and I was having a hard time letting go of the fast pace and slowing down. It’s kind of like that weird feeling of emptiness after you’ve planned for a big event and then it’s all over. It’s taken me a few weeks just to get comfortable with this feeling of “pause.” Like I’ve been running so long, walking feels really strange, even though it’s what I know I need.
But I think having a new space to create in was like a clean slate. Instead of having an upcoming event in mind while I was painting, I decided to just play. For the first time in a while, I found myself in flow, not thinking about the outcome and it felt like coming home.
I can’t wait to show all of you what I’m working on and how this season is inspiring me. Stay tuned for my next newsletter, I may just have some brand new work to show all of you 👀
