Where Women Create: Inspiring Work Spaces of Extraordinary Women
by Jo Packham
If, like me, your art space space tends to be disorganized and even at times, a disaster area, this book might give you a bad complex. Where Women Create in this book are in very neat studios overflowing with all their treasures organized in artistic yet tidy glass jars and picturesque shelves. No offending piles of paper or discarded projects litter the floor. Many of the women confess to be very neat and tidy so I suspect that somewhere out there in the universe that there really are very neat artists who can somehow fit all their treasures into organized bins and keep them that way. They fill their studios with antique tables and postal boxes and they aren't afraid of getting paint on them!
I'm happy for them. No, really, I am. No sarcasm intended.
But for me . . . I cannot even aspire to these wonderful spaces because I know it will never happen. If someone ever features my studio in such a glossy book and I haven't spent weeks preparing for it - I am no longer Amber and am actually a pod person. So call the FBI and have them haul me off to Area 51.
My studio is filled with IKEA furniture. I don't think I could ever create near an antique table, much less on one. My $45 IKEA table has layers and layers of paint. My IKEA shelves are overflowing with stuff and the drawers don't shut anymore. I have piles of stuff around my work desk that I don't want to put in the drawers because I might need them and yet all I do is trip over them. No matter how many times I clear off my work desk, I still end up with 12 inches of space to work in.
And so my point is that while this book is very enjoyable and filled with gorgeous pictures, do not feel guilt. We stand together in our art mess solidarity.
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