CHICAGO — Back by popular demand … the 31st installment of a series in which artists send in a photo and a description of their workspace.

Want to take part? Submit your studio, just check out the submission guidelines.

Jennifer Manzella, Athens, Georgia (site)

Manzella

My studio is a free standing blue garage built in the 1940s and then renovated by a friend and me. It’s a large studio situated in the suburban neighborhood of Five Point just around the corner from The University of Georgia, where I went to graduate school. The space has high ceilings and plenty of windows with a garage door on the wall opposite the one you are seeing. This image shows the left and right hand-side views combined.

I’m a printmaker but also work with a variety of collage materials combined with drawing and painting. On the desk to the far left is a tabletop letterpress that I’ve almost completely restored; there are still some finishing touches to be done on it. The drafting table in the center has been most recently used for a series of woodcuts; you’ll notice them piled up against the front of the desk. I like to use the wall space to the right as a drawing area, when I get tired of woodcuts I’ll often work on the drawings, which is more direct and improvisational for me. I like to have a few series of works in progress going simultaneously so that I never get burnt out on one thing.

What you can’t see in this photo is the etching press on the other side of the room that I am currently using and conveniently storing for a friend. The garage door opens up into a nice little yard, great for warm fall and spring days. My friend Cathie, who helped me refinish the space, uses a smaller room to the right of this photo and there is a bathroom on the other side of that. My apartment is located three blocks away; close enough to go home for lunch but far enough to avoid distraction.

Peter Hobden, Geneva, Switzerland (link)

Hobden

This is my studio just across the landing from my apartment in a town house in Carouge, a district in Geneva. It is close enough to be able to get  to it fast, and separate enough not to invade my private life. I sometimes go across several times a day as I don’t usually manage to do much more than two hour sessions at one time.

Kim Laurel, Chicago, Illinois (site)

Laurel

I work in multiple media: drawing, painting, printmaking and sculptural installation. I use a drafting table, moveable production tables and the computer in the home studio. For some printed components I go to the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative where I have a Dickerson combination press. My studio practice takes me to multiple locations to create components for my work and everything usually starts or ends up in my small home studio space for final detailing.

Willi Bambach, Berlin, Germany (link)

Bambach (600x800)

What you see is one of my two studio-rooms, with: cd-rack which is about to be transformed into a sculpture; colors standing around; an easel; lots of canvases waiting at the wall; a big block of foam-glass which is about to become a new sculpture.

Ah, and there are stairs that you can’t see.

There are also several parts for a new work lying around: xxx-super8-pornographic movies for use in the new work “Cunt-cat attacking bread-cat ignoring bread-cats intelligence to defend itself with used condoms”; a cinema of “fragile/zerbrechlich” band; a golden support; and a new wooden sculpture in its first stages.

Philip Hartigan is a UK-born artist and writer who now lives, works and teaches in Chicago. He also writes occasionally for Time Out-Chicago. Personal narratives (his own, other peoples', and invented)...