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Welcome to the Drawing Board #8!

Hi All! This newsletter is a bit long- I recently opened up a new online community, The Virtual Studio, and I've been contemplating how we, as artists, use different types of spaces. How do you use your space as an artist? Check out my journey below after a quick podcast update!

A Podcast Update:

I've been having a wonderful time getting to talk with so many amazing artists and getting ready for the podcast launch next week! Yesterday I was able to interview another one of my awesome TA's, Adrian! I've been able to interview three of my most recent TA's so far, and the conversations have been really fun and insightful. I get to work with so many amazing people in my line of work, and I'm excited to share those episodes with you!

How We Use Spaces

When I was a kid, I used to draw a lot at the kitchen table during the off-dinner hours on loose paper. My father purchased a drafting table for me one year for Christmas, which was kind of him. Once it arrived, being another table in the same space, it sort of sat around collecting piles of stuff on it and very little drawing happened there. I already had what I needed, I think; a space to draw when I felt like it. Later on, when I was taking AP Art in high school, I would complete my homework drawings at the kitchen table as well. Looking back, I would've recommended my father get me an easel. Not because the easel is better, but because it would've been different. It would have introduced something new into a space I was already familiar with- something that I’d have to navigate and form a relationship with. Engaging with it would have been both a choice and a learning process, especially since I hadn’t used an easel much before college.

When I arrived at college, they didn't have dorms or any sort of "on site" housing. I remember them proudly saying "the city is your campus!", which was nice, but daunting at the time. We found an amazing apartment to live in, and I was able to set up my modest bedroom into a working space that suited me well enough. I started to collect art supplies, and I had moved my drafting table into my new bedroom and even started to use it a bit. Pretty soon however, I noticed that most of my artwork took place in the living room around my roommates, who were other art students at the college. We would even have other students show up to our apartment and hangout to work on our homework. I rarely worked on art in my bedroom. In fact, when I did, it felt like "work", and not something fun that I enjoyed.

Later on, some of my roommates moved out and I was able to take over the master bedroom in the apartment. I haven't lived there for 15 years, but I still miss it. I had room to separate the space with a couch, and I moved in two 8'x6' wooden plywood panels that I rested up against one of the walls so I could hang works-in-progress as needed without damaging the property. I was showing my work frequently in the area, and my room became my art storage space, with stacks of frames, lumber, art supplies, books, and a travel easel that usually stayed set up. My roommates at the time weren't illustration students, or fine artists, so I was working more in my room alone. But I didn't feel alone. My social life was going well, and I had been introduced to Facebook and some popular (at the time) online art forums. I was able to share my work with more people than before who would "get it", and through those platforms and the friends I made there I was constantly exposed to some really amazing work that I'm not sure I would've ever found on my own.

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In grad school, I had access to a small studio space for working and storing my materials. But I didn’t get along well with my studio mate, and since I commuted daily from another state, I ended up setting up my own studio in my bedroom at home. I started to collect more casts, anatomical specimens, and books. My room started to feel like a library of curiosities- I'm sure some of you can relate. I was learning so much, but I found that I wasn't as productive as I would've liked to have been. The demands of grad school and my commute were such that I had to compromise my vision more than I would've liked, and I missed the sense of community that I had previously enjoyed. If you're taking part in a full time, in-person arts program, I highly recommend that you live in the same area as the program itself. Don't commute; be where the other students are. After a year, I received access to my own slightly larger studio in the school, and I moved to New York City so I wouldn't have to commute from another state. My studio was large enough now that I could have other artists join me, and they'd sit for portraits while we discussed art and the program. We'd take over empty classrooms and get together to make work. My studio became a place to create again, but I still found myself enjoying the spaces outside of my storage area. And I really enjoyed walking around and talking to the other artists in the school, visiting their studios, showing them books and offering feedback when asked.

Once I graduated I found myself teaching pretty much immediately, and the classroom space became a new interest of mine: each day I watched the studio morph into a presentation space, a storage space, a working space, and a gallery. Because I was put in charge of running the studio space, it was the first time I had really considered how a space needs to be able to function to help curate a creative, workable atmosphere.

When I moved back to PA in 2013, my good friend and studio mate David offered me a spot in his beautiful studio. I've been able to work there ever since. I find that it's helpful to have a separate studio space if you can (I know it's a luxury, and that I'm very fortunate.) Not having my TV there is a big deal for me- I'm ashamed to admit how much TV I find myself watching in the evenings! Additionally, having a space that I travel to instead of waking up in, has helped to facilitate how I see my work. I'm able to get outside of it in a new way that I wasn't before. I can remember it, because I'm not always surrounded by the works-in-progress, and in that memory I'm able to think in a more aspirational manner rather than a strictly practical, "here's what needs fixing" manner. I'm also not in my studio to lie down, or be overly comfortable- I'm there to work. No matter where you find your own studio, in your bedroom, or a space you need to travel to, I recommend setting it up so you have to cross something, or go to it, in a way that helps to mentally remove your work space from your typical space. In college I used a couch to separate the "living area" from the "working" area. In truth, I imagine a simple rug on the floor would be enough to help create a different sense of space if you have your studio in your bedroom. If you're lucky enough to have a whole room to use, just walking through the doorway is enough, I think.

A studio, in my opinion, is best used when it's able to store objects, art, and materials AND facilitate connection with other creative individuals. Working with others keeps us accountable, meaning we use our time more wisely, and it also keeps us more engaged because it's now a social activity. The myth of the lone, tortured artist is silly; not all of us work that way, especially not productively! There are four artists who use the studio space that I'm lucky enough to have access to, and we rarely cross paths during non-scheduled hours. So we schedule studio drawing nights multiple times a month to get together and draw from a model that we hire. It's a wonderful time to spend with other artists, drawing, painting, and sculpting while talking about what films/books/exhibitions we've been enjoying and talking shop. At the end of the evening we walk around and see where the artwork landed. It's a blast - and being around such hardworking and dedicated artists keeps me focused (I don't want to be the one to drop the ball!) It was this practice that helped us shape the Tuesday evening Zoom hangouts that Sarah and I started up during the pandemic when we were all in quarantine. These weekly Virtual Studio hangouts have been running now since 2021, and function in a way like the in-person hangouts in the studio.

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I don't want to neglect what I view as one of the primary functions of a studio space: storage. Artists see the potential in things. And it's hard to part with potential. So we store our piles of art supplies, our canvases, boxes, and objects that one day may find themselves in a still-life sometime in the future. We also find ourselves drawn to objects that inspire and captivate us. Are you also a collector of those sorts of objects? Let me know. I'm obsessed with artistic anatomy, and have a pretty large collection of casts and specimens that I use when teaching (including self-instruction), and they'll also find their way into my studio work. Having easy access to these objects, which I've been collecting avidly for about 15 years now, is important to me. I really enjoy setting up still-life motifs, and often I'll leave a still-life up for months at a time while I work a drawing or painting.

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I've started to curate these objects and take photographs of them for our Still-Life Club at the Open Sketchbook. Over the upcoming months I hope to build a new sort of digital library in our Virtual Studio online community, with an archive of Still-Life Club references, and links to other resources that we'll all find fascinating and useful in our research. It's nice to be able to store these motifs digitally, so I can have more space to work in my physical studio. With so much happening on the Open Sketchbook website and in our community, I've decided to create a new type of digital space for us to use. The Virtual Studio brings us together in a way that reminds me so much of the best aspects of having people over to my apartment, and what I'd find on the online forums at the time: artists sharing what they're making, and cool art that they've found. It's great to have a space to connect. And if I'm being honest, I think that's one of the unspoken aspects of a studio- and the most under utilized. A space can bring people together - all of the best creative spaces I've worked in have offered that in some way, and if you're looking to build out a physical space, I really recommend that you try to prioritize that so you can create something wonderful for yourself and those around you. If you want to add a digital space to your practice and connect with us- check it out:

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How do you think of your creative space? Is your practice really different from mine? I'd love to hear from you.

Weekly Sketch Starter:
​Stacked Forms

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I really enjoy Susan Jane Walp's use of compressed space in this downward perspective. She must really enjoy it as well, because she revisits this motif quite often in her work.

Thanks so much for reading our 8th newsletter! I really appreciate you taking the time to check it out. I'm also really excited for all the wonderful things coming up in the next few months: the podcast (launching next week! wow!), the new Virtual Studio community, blog posts are coming back soon once the podcast is off the ground, new workshops, and Sarah and I started to offer an online mentorship program! Exciting things.

If you like what we're doing over here, please let a friend know about the newsletter!

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Looking forward to March!

Happy drawing,
Evan​​

​​https://learn.theopensketchbook.com/​

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