A Studio of One's Own

The morning was spent adding a drafting table to my office. As Virginia Woolf advocated in A Room of One's Own, a person needs her own space in order to create, whether it be in writing or in painting. I realized that if I was going to get to work again in preparation for the December show at Ripe Gallery, I couldn't spend precious moments cleaning up the space I had been using, a space that is now home to craft projects for the kids.

I also needed a space that could remain set up. Having worked in gouache for the past few years, I missed the juiciness of oil paint. I also love using it on heavy stock paper. The combination of the smooth texture and the absorbency gives a surface that works well with my images, so last night I culled through my oil paints, taking stock of what I had, what was still useable, what to toss. I even made time to start a couple of new projects, revisiting some of the ideas I had in terms of surrealism in landscapes. It's nice having the studio as a part of my office, reminding me to return to what I started.