CREATIVE PLACES

By Bill Slavin

My art space has disappeared with our move. The room was a great place to work and filled to the brim with the stuff I thought essential to creating. I also felt more and more cramped in the space, but I never took the time to clean much of the jumble out. With our move, I had the chance. I selected what I thought I could use in our transition and packed the rest away. 

Now that we are in our new temporary home, I’ve unpacked the art equipment that I brought and find myself puzzled by what I left out. I have no drawing tablets, scrap paper, gesso, cutting boards, and other tools. I had to laugh at the decisions/mistakes I’ve made because they have forced me to try new things. 

New place to work

I’m working on our dining room table, which is also filled with our house-hunting papers, computers, shopping lists, glasses, books we’re reading,  and Bill’s cameras. I’m still taking my Zoom watercolor class, but with limited space, I am using a watercolor sketchbook and therefore making much smaller paintings. One lesson Bill and I have learned from our move has been how privileged we were to live in the house we did. We don’t regret moving, but we are re-evaluating our needs and expectations of what we have.

My old workspace looked out on our street and I could see walkers stop to talk or briskly power through their exercise routine. Since our move, I realized that light and view are important. Right now we look out on a small pond and light filters through our windows, which brings light into the house.

by Bill Slavin

Since our move, I have visited other creative friends’ homes and have come away with a little studio envy. Their rooms have supplied me with new ideas for an art space for myself when we have a new permanent house to live in.

 A friend’s studio overlooks the ocean and is filled with her large paintings of the sea. The ocean blues she uses in her paintings wander on objects throughout her house. Another painter friend has a room overlooking the straits leading from San Francisco to Sacramento. She can hear the whistles of the trains on the other side of the water and watch cargo ships wend their way up the straits. Her view includes her colorful garden that spreads across her backyard. Another friend quilts in a pristine space with enough room to hang large quilts on a wall and plenty of storage space for mountains of quilting fabric. A writer/painter friend lives at the top of a hill in the Santa Cruz Mountains with a house filled with family photographs, shells, her pastel paintings, books on writing, and a collection of fountain pens with their smooth flow that inspires her to write by hand.

In each of these homes are treasures, whether a collection of colorful California pottery, a garden brimming with flowers to gather in bouquets, smooth stones picked up on beach walks, or chairs lovingly painted by children. Their homes are like being inside of someone else’s creativity and an inspiration to me to keep around me objects that motivate me in my own work no matter the size of the space I live in.