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.
