Other people in three studios:
“‘You know,’ Cage reportedly said, ‘when you enter your studio, everyone is there, the people in your life, other artists, the old masters, everyone. And as you work they leave, one by one. And if it is a really good working day, well, you leave too.’” (Robert Storr, pp. 59-60)
“The best ways to waste time in the studio are those that are unproductive and not related in any ostensible way to making art. I’ve fallen into a new way of wasting time, and it doesn’t involve the internet. My new activity is engaging and completely useless. I can’t tell you what it is; it’s embarrassing to me. I find a lot of what I do in the studio pretty embarrassing, but it’s no more embarrassing than what I make. I’ve never been able to work with people around. I don’t want to think about myself when I’m working. It is very hard to get into this state of un-self-consciousness, where I can get lost in the work.” (Rachel Harrison, p. 217)
“Philip Guston was generous to me as a student first in New York City. […] Puffing on a fat cigar, he told me that before he could begin to work in his studio, he had a daily exorcism to perform. He said, ‘First I have to banish my gallery dealer, then the art historians, the critics, the other painters I am close to, unknown persons, finally my family, and then, when I feel the studio is finally empty of these presences, I can occupy the space and begin to see the brushes, the paints, the canvas’.” (Carolee Schneemann, p. 155)
These are from contributors to The Studio Reader: On the Space of Artists, ed. Mary Jane Jacob and Michelle Grabner, Chicago Press (2010)
