Slob Studio Shots / A Reality Check

Today we wander into the pig-sty that is my studio. I thought it would be a learning experience to show you just how archaic things get for this wacked out collage artist.
My studio was particularly messy last week and when I took a break and came back to work, I had a good laugh. I wanted to share this with clearinghouse readers...Sometimes you see these really excellent photos of peoples' workspaces, and they are all organized and anal neat, and kinda pretty, with antique boxes, and vintage trunks and nice stacks of paper all arranged in neat bookshelves.
That's not the way it works for me. And I suspect others may fall into this category right along with me!



THE table where the magic happens.

I work primarily on this old oak desk. It has limited top space, but I insist upon piling strange objects in funny scenes on it ad infinitum. This ends up taking up about 1/3 of the possible room, but when I am daydreaming when working, it's fun to talk to the doll that is laying inside the cricket cage that is hanging inside the birdcage that has keys hanging on the outside.

One side of the desk. Strange styro head inside cage. That represents the other half of me, the half that is living in the world normally. She sits and watches while that second half of me gets crazy. Now and then we try a conversation. She doesn't say much.

On the other end of the desk is the group of mugs and tins filled with pens pencils and scissors. There's always bottles o' ink, Golden acrylics, and random glue sticks floating around underneath and on top of everything. Every now and then, when I start a new group of pieces, this mess gets cleaned up and everything is put into the drawers and wooden boxes they belong in, but they don't stay there long. Almost immediately upon cleaning off this surface, it gets trashed with the next wave of work. In fact, I think cleaning it encourages me to get messy> he he he.


The floor. It takes a serious beating. I didn't notice that my mouse was hanging off the edge of the other desk till I took the pictures!! Poor abused thing.

The most taken for granted place is the floor. I don't even attempt to try to be neat when I am at work, (can you tell?) The little kritzly pieces that I trim end up on the floor, along with good stuff too. When I clean up, I actually sit there on the floor and examine the waste paper before trashing it. Sometimes good little pieces that I cut get stuck on my shirt or whatever and end up on the floor. I hate to lose a good head by just scooping up the mess and tossing it!! I have boxes of pieces that were cut and ended up not being used. BOXES and boxes ....it's really crazy.


These white metal shelves hold some of the many boxes of stuff I daily use. I currently have 3 full boxes of food labels. There's at least 4 boxes of loose ephemera and random pages from magazines. Theres' 2 full boxes of large nice ephemera pieces, the nicer treasured stuff. There's envelopes full of sheet music, and other envelopes packed full of laser prints from my photos. The list goes on and on. It morphs and changes daily. If I find something I intend to use, I better grab it along the way, because things get buried for years in these boxes. I once created a small little mini book, scanned it and left it on the desk. I haven't seen it in 3 years.


The other side of the room, opposite the main desk. This is a drafting table...with the second bird cage. Usually it's so cluttered I can't work on it.

It's somehow comforting to be surrounded by all these things. I like to be able to see everything. I know, it would drive a clean freak crazy, but it's the way I do it. Thank God the studio is upstairs and no one sees it but me and now YOU!