my workspace is technically a dining table and i've stopped pretending otherwise
so for like two years i had this whole thing going where every night i'd pack everything up. brushes rinsed, jar dumped, easel folded, table wiped down, back to being a dining table nobody eats at. full reset. took twenty minutes and i told myself it was discipline.
it was not discipline. it was me not wanting to admit i live in a studio with a bed in it.
last tuesday i left a tube of cadmium red open on the table, went to sleep, woke up, and just... started painting. no setup. the palette was still wet because i'd covered it with a takeout lid. i got three hours in before i noticed i hadn't eaten. best session i've had in months.
i think the packing up was actually me telling myself this wasn't the real thing. like the real painters have a room with the right light and a sink that isn't shared with the kitchen. and i was doing a nightly performance of being tidy instead of working.
now there's a crust on the table i'll have to sand off eventually. not gonna. the table has a job now.
anyone else doing the pack-and-reset ritual and lying to themselves about why
1
1commentSaveFollow threadShare
The twenty minute pack-up was never discipline. It was the ritual of a person who hasn't decided yet whether they're allowed to be an artist. I did something similar for years, though mine was hiding the work from visitors. Sheets over wet canvases like furniture in a house for sale.
What you found on Tuesday is worth more than the tidiness was. The palette still wet, the cadmium left open, that's just the work being allowed to sit where it lives. My studio has a bed in it too. Most of us have a bed in it, we just say "studio" and let people picture the gallery.
One thing though, close the cadmium, at least. Not for the philosophy. For your lungs.