My Room

Yesterday was a nice, warm, beautiful spring day. I spent the day catching up on yard work, pulled out some bushes, weeding and mowing. Today is quite different. It is rainy, windy and cold. A good day to do a project in here, my sewing room. I'm supposed to be working on a something for an art auction on Friday, but inspiration just hasn't struck yet. It will....I think.

If I don't get inspired, it will not be for lack of creative space. I love this room. It was a guest room once upon a time, but when I started working with the theatre company something had to give. I was constantly taking over the dining room for weeks at a time and with little kid hands always present, it just wasn't safe. One cannot endanger the lives of little people with pins, scissors and hot glue guns and irons. So I did what any respectable mother would do, take over a whole bedroom all for me. The safety, you understand. The kids like sharing a room, they really do. And they do have a double loft bed, just like Mary and Laura, how many kids would love that, huh? This room, even though small, just 11x10 I think, is really functional. It houses all my craft supplies, fabrics, magazines and my clothes and jewelry. There is a closet to the right of the little dress form that deerslayer outfitted for me. It looks like a little boutique, with purses and shoes and a mirror inside it. It is very small mind you, but I don't have that many clothes, I would not be considered a hoarder by any means, unless you are talking about magazines, then...... maybe. The interior wall has this great Ikea storage unit. As you can see it is the workhorse of the room.

But beyond the practicality of this space, it also has healing properties. You see, my older brother was tragically killed in an apartment fire 5 years ago. His picture is below, inside a large antique shadow box in the room. The picture behind my head is a self portrait he did of himself many years ago. We used it as the invitation to a gallery showing of his life and work. He was a great artist and a great person. The correlation you ask, well he always had great spaces to work in, sometimes they were abandoned buildings, sometimes cool city lofts, where ever he happened to be at the time. But the spaces were always undeniably him. Filled with the creative things he loved. I guess after he died, I just started filling this room with me. Things I love, things that are important to my creative process. He would have liked this room, it would have made him proud, he would have poured over every little thing, asking me questions and making me feel like somebody special. He had a great way of doing that for everyone, not just his little sister.

So there you have it, life and art hand in hand. You can see some of my other favorite things in these pictures. If you study them you will see a dream house, a charm bracelet, an antique pin cushion, a fawn (you may have guessed already I heart fawns, a post for another day), special photos, jewelry. Under all of these things is a purple tea towel, a towel my brother had in his art studio when he died. It was the inspiration for this room. He was and is my inspiration for this room. What things inspire you? Where do you do your best work, your life work? I'd love to know.