Welcome to episode 227 of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their field of work. This week, artists depict the unseen, engage with nature while working indoors and treat their studio as a permanent exhibition.
Want to participate? Check out our new submission guidelines and share a little about your studio with us through this form! All media and workspaces are welcome, including the home studio.
Paloma Vianey, Washington, DC
Describe an average day in your studio.
As a full-time artist, I spend most of my day in my studio. Arriving in the morning, I set up my oil paintings to continue multitasking while listening to my favorite Mexican podcast, covering current political and cultural news from my hometown. I paint for hours until I move to my desk to work on grants, applications and emails. Then I continue to paint or read literature on contemporary art (I try to save fiction and non-art reading for home).
How does space influence your work?
As a resident of Hamiltonian Artists’ early studio, I find it strange and wrong to receive the first drops of paint on the stained floor and newly constructed walls. Creating in this space for the first time is scary, but knowing that I am the first of many artists to use this space is empowering. This studio has no windows, and while that would be a turn-off for many people, the isolation and solitude gives me full focus to research, paint and think.
What do you like about your studio?
Growing up in an industrial city in Mexico, I always had to drive everywhere. Heavy traffic was part of my daily life. I love walking to my studio and starting to plan my studio activities in my head as I walk. Since the studios are subsidized, I had to go through a competitive process. I love that I have affordable studio space within walking distance of my home in one of the most expensive cities in the US, which I didn’t think was possible.
What is your favorite art material to work with?
Oil painting will always be my favorite medium. However, my paintings rarely take the traditional form of a canvas stapled to a stretcher. They are three-dimensional loud experiments that tell the story of where I come from. I include unusual materials such as zippers and Mexican fabric; I sculpt with the canvas before printing it, rely on subtractive methods to represent the unseen or try to formulate other painting processes.
Bob Keefer, outside Creswell, Oregon
Describe an average day in your studio.
I am a landscape artist working in an unusual medium: hand-colored black and white landscape photography. I usually start work around 8 or 9 on my home studio days, when I print images and paint them with acrylics or oils. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I take pictures or work in an office I maintain in town (we live on wooded land about 20 miles from Eugene). I usually have several pieces in process at any given time. By 14:00 or 15:00 I’m ready to stop working on art, so I go outside to work, chopping and splitting wood and working in the large vegetable garden outside my studio windows.
How does space influence your work?
It’s a small studio, only 15 x 15 feet, but its windows look out onto a beautiful Douglas-fir forest, which means I’m always engaged with nature and the landscape even when working at my painting table (I don’t use an easel).
How do you interact with the environment outside of your studio? Is there an art community nearby, and if so, are you connected to it?
Eugene has a vibrant arts community, which I wrote for the now-defunct newspaper during my years as an arts writer and more recently. Eugene Weekly, an alt-weekly. So yes, I’m very connected to the Oregon art world.
What do you like about your studio?
The wood used for the interior walls of the studio came from the old 1880’s house that was here when we bought this property 40 years ago.
What would you like to be different?
Sometimes I wish it was bigger. Not often.
What is your favorite local museum?
Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University an hour away on I-5 in Salem. It has the finest collection of Oregon art to be found anywhere.
What is your favorite art material to work with?
Paper and paint.
Billy Gerard Frank, Manhattan, New York
Describe an average day in your studio.
I start the day at 10:00 and work until 22:00. As a multidisciplinary artist, I work on several projects at the same time. My studio space plays a key role in shaping my creative process.
Surrounding myself with subject-related materials such as newspaper clippings, poetry texts, music and found objects, I immerse myself in a rich tapestry of ideas. Treating my studio as an ongoing exhibition of my work, I maintain a dynamic relationship with my creations. This approach connects me with past projects and allows me to experiment with new ideas.
My studio space doubles as a place of meditation, allowing me to enter a state of flow where ideas move freely and barriers dissolve. His work as a research-based multimedia artist and filmmaker also serves as a laboratory for space exploration. I can interact with my research materials, interrogate their meanings and integrate them into my process in a fluid and organic way.
How does space influence your work?
Overall, my studio space is not just the physical location where I create art; it’s a dynamic ecosystem that feeds my creativity, sustains my artistic practice, and serves as a repository of ideas and inspiration. It shapes the way I think, work and interact with my creations, enriching both my artistic production and my career as an artist.
How do you interact with the environment outside of your studio? Is there an art community nearby, and if so, are you connected to it?
My studio is part of the vibrant Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts community, nestled between 39th Street, the Port Authority, Times Square, and the bustling chaos of bustling city life. Despite the hustle and bustle of the city, I find inspiration in the energy of the neighborhood. When I step outside, I absorb the rhythms of the city, from the passing crowds to the distant traffic. Connected to a diverse art community, including artists and surrounding galleries, my studio serves as a sanctuary for creativity and a space for collaboration. In the midst of all this is a permanent homelessness that opens up a space for reflection and constant empathic looking and witnessing that keeps me in touch with my practice and the uncertain reality around the corner.
What do you like about your studio?
Evening light
What would you like to be different?
More space, always.
What is your favorite art material to work with?
Indigo pigments, lately.
