A place of my own

Like all good things I "find" on the internet, Fox told me about an illustrator named @frannerd years and years ago. Fox was right, I did like and continue to enjoy watching @frannerd's videos, following her on Instagram and eventually supporting her on Patreon.

Fran Maneses aka @frannerd is originally from Chile who now lives and works in New York. I watch Fran's youtube.com video on Saturday mornings, curled up on the sofa, cradling a cup of hot coffee and watch her talk to me reflected in a mirror (she only recently purchased a camera with a flip screen). She walks the streets of Brooklyn, sketches, paints, screenprints pre-loved t-shirts, waters her plant, all the normal things a working artist in New York would do. When I can't spend a Saturday morning with Fran, either because of my schedule or hers, I miss her.

A good start to a Saturday is an @frannerd Saturday.

Since moving to NYC, Fran has secured studio space in Brooklyn and I have been coloured envious.

Her lovely NYC studio has caused me to look upon local abandoned or under-maintained industrial buildings with a day-dreamy view to have a converted warehouse-type art space of my own. I will need quite the square-footage to accommodate my "money is no object" equipment and layout to be fair, but what's the point of fantasy if it has limits.

Daydreaming about an art studio is lovely, but it's also a form of procrastination. For me, anyway. It's a way of avoiding the hard part, which is the actual doing of making. I've currently obsessed with quilting again. Each time I decide to work on one of my quilting projects, I need to haul my sewing machine, ironing board, cutting mat, etc out of the cupboard, set them up on the dining room table, rah rah rah and then put it all away again when I'm done or rather when I run out of time. My dream art studio has a whole dream area dedicated to my dream sewing room setup ($25,000 long arm quilting machine anyone?). If only, if only, if only I had a studio like Frans!

Start where you are

Cradling my coffee one Saturday morning watching Fran's weekly video I looked around and it dawned on me: I have the space to have my own art studio! I had always had it, it was just hard to see because of the clutter downstairs. I have a rumpus room full of my kitchen - basically. Boxes of kitchen equipment, pans, and other stuff I've not missed since moving it out for the new kitchen last year. If I moved all that stuff out and rearranged/tidied the space, I too could have a creative space! hashtag revelation!!

First things first: furniture. I have a desk and a computer set-up down there where I work from home sometimes. I have a drawing table and organised my art supplies in a re-purposed hutch dresser. It just needed a good tidy, and that was half the rumpus room organised. The other half I decided to make it into a sewing space. To have my sewing machine set up permanently would be a dream!

A few Google searches later and I had a couple of IKEA tables being delivered the next day.

I moved the old kitchen boxes out and into the garage (ultimate dumping ground) swept, de-spidered and got the area ready. Tables arrived and were assembled and all quilting equipment moved into the space from various cubby-holes upstairs.

I NOW HAVE A STUDIO!!

So easy when you think about it. Starting where I was and with what I had cut all my daydreaming procrastination off at the knees and set me on a practical course of action.

So, we're blogging now, are we?

Today I tried a lot harder to be positive and keep a grip on my patience. I think I did okay.

I had this great quote to share with you but now I’ve forgotten the exact wording of it - so let me paint the picture and at it might come back to me. I was at work, talking positively and kindly about a person who I generally feel neither way about. The person I was talking to gave me the side-eyes and I exclaimed “What?? I’m being nice!!” to which he said (this is the bit I forgot but it went something like “Stop it, it doesn’t suit you.”

Maybe that was it.

“Stop it; it doesn’t suit you”

The few weeks left in my work year are stretching out and filling up with loads of work and tasks and appointments and commitments and of course, they are: it’s DECEMBER! Remember how everyone has to get stuff finished by Christmas? and there are more social events? and the weather is unpredictable? and you’re tired?

Yeh, all those things.

So blogging hasn’t changed around here in 20 years. Still full of moaning and groaning without any context or specifics.

It’s because I’m tired!

Do you get that way? after a year of working, does it creep up on you and it’s a crawl to the end of the year?

I listened to one of the Design Matters podcasts by Debbie Milman - Fox reminded me of this podcast. Good on ya, mate. I listened to a couple one after the other so I’m not sure what this came from (noticing a pattern here?) people are either flames or drains.

No, that wasn’t it.

People are either radiators or drains.

Currently, I am a drain. Draining energy from everyone (including you) like an energy vampire.

Tired and testy

Worst kept secret: when I get tired I get grumpy and snappy.

Right now, and for the last few weeks, I’ve been tired. This is mostly due to drinking too many cups of coffee during the day, staying up too late at night, crow-barring myself out of bed for work in the morning.

Such an annoying state of affairs and frankly, easy to fix.

I really do love to sleep, but I really do hate going to bed. It’s that lovely time of the night when I’m the only one awake and the house is quiet and I have myself to myself. I hog that time of the night and I make it stretch for so long it impacts the next day. This has been a habit of mine since forevs.

This isn’t a blog post about how I’m going to change my ways, adopt better habits, start chugging magnesium again.

Nope; this is just a moan.

Because I’m tired, and because I’ve been snippy on the phone and in emails and my patience has been paper-thin and not disguising anything.

The end of my story.