Friday afternoon and I thought that I would be on my way home, if not already home by now. However it is so nice being at the new studio – especially now that the walls are painted and floor is ’floored’. The hospital pink that fought for dominance over the orange Lino are things of the past. Now I have white walls and a very pale floor.
It has been almost six year since I have had just a nice studio. Since leaving WIP:sthlm I tried having my studio at home when I first moved to Enköping, then I shared that damp, cold, dark, semi subterranean former garage with Klas before we found the Old Gymnastic Hall with its light blue walls, chocolate brown ceilings, and lack of electricity. Here I have not only a wealth of electrical sockets but also the internet, a good size window looking over a lawn and towards some very well established fir trees, and a door that I can open and close as I wish.
Decorating the studio has been important to me, it makes real something that I find difficult to speak about. It has to do with taking myself and my work seriously, giving it the time and investment that it needs. Perhaps giving it the space that it needs – my work has raw edges so putting it in a clean space affords those edges the intentions and attentions that I want them to have. I have created a room where I both make and show my work in good and appropriate ways.
Having the studio to myself and without having to think about other people passing through to get to their spaces gives me the opportunity to think/re-think what kind of working space I want. There are two joists that divide the ceiling into almost equal thirds, I am taking my cue from these divisions 1: nearest the door/furthest from the window for storage, 2: middle for production, 3: closest to the window for hanging, showing, relaxing, reading and writing.
It has just dawned on me what I like about being here – I do not have to fight with the space or try to convince it to let me be an artist. This is a space for an artist. And I do not mean just my room, it feels as though the whole studio association is willing us and wanting us to be artists. And that feels very good.
