Welcome to the 221st installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists find time for their practice between childcare responsibilities, wield space through sculpture, document their communities resisting gentrification, and absorb the humming sounds of everyday life.
Want to take part? Check out our submission guidelines and share a bit about your studio with us! All mediums and workspaces are welcome, including your home studio.
Seth Callander, New Haven, Connecticut
I’m an abstract sculptor. This is the state of my studio when at work; it involves an idea, constant improvising, and clamps. It takes a concentration that fills — or shrinks the space. Like all of us, it also takes place among other pieces which sometimes is engaging and at other times it’s what encourages pushing forward. I’m grateful for a good space, the tall ceilings, and that my studio building allows all the dust and noise that goes into making sculpture.
Wylie Garcia, Charlotte, Vermont
I recently moved my studio from a collective artist space/gallery to a three-season sunroom in my home. Finding uninterrupted studio time as a co-parenting single mother with a full-time job is difficult. After the pandemic, I thought I would never want to have my studio at home again, but working from home allows my daily practice to take place in small manageable moments. I spend time painting between morning coffee and waking the kids up for school, between dinner and bedtime, and on the weekends when the kids are with their dad. Also, I like to work on multiple paintings at once. Here, I have many canvases of varying sizes, in different stages of completion in rotation. This room also gets good light from a large picture window overlooking an open field. It’s a departure from a studio with no windows but is a necessary feature that comes in handy, especially during the long dark days of winter in Vermont.
Daisy Holden, Hollywood, California
My name is Daisy Holden, I am a painter living in Hollywood, California. Here is a view of my studio while the morning sun crashes through the windows. I’ve worked and lived at this studio for 10 years now. The most important thing to note about this incredibly unique and peaceful space is that it allows the outside world/energy in — I can hear the humming of the famous 101 freeway (which sounds like the ocean), club music, and street chatter. This space is used for creating large wall drawings, and also as a library, a little office/eating nook, and my ever-growing storage unit. My studio has inspired my process simply by looking out the windows and listening to the environment.
Hermes Berrío, Miami, Florida
This is my studio, where I document quotidian life in Little River, the Miami neighborhood where it is located. As an artistic and cultural enclave, Little River resists being gentrified and transformed into a tourist attraction. To document the extraordinary in everyday life, I explore and interpret my urban surroundings with honesty. With a pictorial process, I opt for a simple palette, compositions rich in urban typography, and textures derived from repurposed materials that give meaning to my painterly vision.
