A creative nest of one's own.....

line doodles and inspiration on my desk

my creative nest in the window nook...

What joy to have a sunny day to work in my "nest". I have been amazed at how several small additions to my upstairs - used to be office- has transformed this space into my "creative nest". This winter I chose not to buy propane to heat my studio as the ancient heater and many drafty spaces around windows and thin doors makes it rather expensive. I've insulated and insulated and think the solution must be to invest in a new heater and insulation foam in every nook. As I am working on a series of scratchbord drawings at present, I can easily make them in the house so decided that not heating the studio would be OK for a bit. I had a two person show in October that was up for a couple of months, and I always feel the need to re-group after finishing a body of work. So, after many years of paying way too much for studio heat, I let the studio go for the cold months and worked on creating a space upstairs for drawing. It has turned out to be a great way to "stir the creative cauldron", taking me out of habitual ways of working and into a generative place of exploration.

I enlisted my amazing carpenter father to build me a floor to ceiling bookcase on one wall (something that I had wanted for years to deal with piles of art books on the floor), and a desk built into a window nook. There was an unfinished feeling in my office as I hadn't landed on what to do with that window nook and didn't have enough storage for books. I've been amazed, however, at how the addition of a sunny, new desk to work at has been inspiring beyond my imagination. Before this, my computer sat on a desk looking at cork board, my back to the large picture window with a view of the hemlocks surrounding the house. Doing my teaching prep on the computer was not very inspiring. With the addition of the desk in the window nook and a wireless laptop, I look forward to working on pretty much anything that entails sitting there.

People are often jealous of my studio space- a relatively small outbuilding just a few yards from the house. To me it seems very small in comparison to my former 1100 ft loft space in Rhode Island. My "nest" has taught me a lot about what's possible even in a tiny nook! Though making my watercolors wouldn't work up here because of my painting process, writing, drawing, blogging, journaling and dreaming are all supported in such a loving way in this little creative nest of mine. I am now an enthusiastic advocate of creating a creative nest of one's own in any little nook one can find. The next step is landing on the right green for the walls.... I've been at this choice for some years now, but I am confident that it will finally happen now to complete the healing inspiration of this lovely space. As the weather warms, I am eager to begin the clean-up and re-organization of my studio space and see if I can bring some of the sunny inspiration from my creative nest there.