Journal

{studio update}

“your handwriting. the way you walk. which china pattern you choose.
it’s all giving you away. everything you do shows your hand.
everything is a self portrait. everything is a diary.”
~ Chuck Palahniuk ~

I am still so excited to be transforming our old dining room into a small studio space where to play by myself as well as with others. Feeling so privileged to have a ‘room of my own’ for a specific purpose, something that in a powerful and symbolic way affirms my creative identity. Loving it, though still work in progress + this decision was my best 55th birthday present last month. 

It is a space which is truly and entirely mine and where everything I love come together – hats, wigs and various other props from my photography days to inspire and encourage playfulness, mismatched vintage crockery and cutlery for the hospitality bit, old things of all kinds, some chipped, some rusted or cracked but all beautiful to me and serving a purpose (even though not necessarily the one they were originally intended for). It is still work in progress but I am making massive strides every day. Ok, it might look a bit like a lost luggage depot but you can’t beat vintage suitcases as storage with a soul.

A wonderful multi sensory climate is evolving, especially regarding the sense of smell.

In my younger years it was a mixture of freshly brewed black coffee, oil paints and turpentine, dust raising from an old electric heater, Sobranie tobacco.

Today, every time I open the door, I am greeted by a heady mix of wax polish, emulsion paint, dusty old book, brasso, wisteria and lilac blooms.

Not unlike creative journaling itself, sorting, cleaning and polishing are very meditative activities when performed mindfully. I am fully present and as I touch and stroke each small item or a piece if furniture my prayers and intentions mix with the scents surrounding me.

Having a personal space, whether a room or a corner of a table that truly and fully reflects all that we love and all that we are is very affirmative. A kind of “self portrait and a diary”.

In what ways do you claim space in your surroundings, your living/creative/working areas? Has the Artist/the Writer/the Lover of …. within you got a space she can call her
own?