Waking Up the Studio

Our summer was amazing. Earlier this past June I announced that I would be taking a bit of a hiatus for the summer to focus on enjoying time with my kids while they were out of school. We had a big trip planned and spent most of our summer vacation in Bali, Indonesia! Even without a trip planned our summers are typically very busy in a chaotic-but-fun type of way. We plan activities to do with our girls, we celebrate our wedding anniversary, spend time on the boat or out at the beach. Bedtimes are more laxed, plans are more spontaneous—we recharge, reconnect, and reset…

I also play this fun little game where I try not to die from the suffocating humidity and miserable heat waves that settle over this state June-September.

In case it’s not obvious: I’m not a huge fan of Florida’s high heat indexes. Every summer I say we need to move out this state. And every winter I remember why I love living here.

All that to say, I never mind closing up the studio for a few months to focus on other aspects of my life. It’s natural to want to take a break, and it helps me avoid burn out.

What I never plan on, however, is the difficulty in returning to the studio when I’ve been away for a while. Now keep in mind, my art studio is a detached building in my back yard. Literally steps away from my back door. Not a long commute by any means. Yet, other than the occasional entrance to grab a random item from my studio space, it remains pretty untouched during my breaks. So, at the start of this month when I unlocked the doors and entered my studio to actually work, I realized a few things needed to happen before this space would be productive again. Well, before I would be productive again. I set out on a series of small manageable task to help “wake up” my studio so that I could get back into a creative flow. Not sure about you, but I cannot jump into a routine easily. I need to build up to the point where I feel like I’m going again. You? No? Just me then, huh…sigh.

Moving on….

I decided spending my first week back doing one simple task each day was a pretty good way to ease back into things and started day one with the most obvious chore: Cleaning up. I think so much better with a clean, decluttered space. So, I jumped in and begin dusting and wiping away the signs of neglect and abandonment that had settled over the surfaces of my workspace.

Once the dust and clutter were cleared away, I moved on to organizing the items in my cabinets and drawers. While doing this I took inventory of what I had, what was running low, what needed to be discarded and eventually found myself with the level of organized chaos I’m able to be productive in. From there I did a bit of administrative work that’s too boring to discuss in further detail here, and eventually found myself in a headspace where I could begin a creative warmup.

Enter my sketchbook. My usual way to warm up creatively is to start there. Open my sketchbook and you’ll find drawings in various stages of progress. Some will be finished in a matter of hours whereas others may take months to finally be sealed with a date of completion. On this day I finally finished a cheetah drawing that I’d started months ago and forgotten about.

By the 5th day I was wanting to create an inspiration board on the wall in my studio so that I could begin to conceptualize some of the ideas rolling around in my head. As I add to this visual collage in the weeks to come, I’ll begin to notice if a theme develops that will carry over into new works.

I then ended my task list with appreciating and simply enjoying my studio. This space has been such a blessing for me to have and I’m so grateful for it. I reflected on all that I’ve been able to accomplish here and began planning out some future goals. I played old records, lit scented candles, flipped through art magazines, and sipped on coffee while sitting in my little green chair in the corner.

And with that, both my studio and my creativity were wide awake and ready to get to work. I’m glad I took this approach. It didn’t feel forced or rushed. It felt intentional. Peaceful.

Now let’s see what I create! If you’re not already doing so, follow me over on Instagram and Pinterest to see daily glimpses of what I accomplish in the studio.

Until next time!