Welcome to the 227th installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists represent the unseen, engage with nature even while working indoors, and treat their studio like an ongoing exhibition.
Want to take part? Check out our new submission guidelines and share a bit about your studio with us through this form! All mediums and workspaces are welcome, including your 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 paints to continue several works in progress while listening to my favorite Mexican podcast, updating me on the current political and cultural news of my home country. I paint for hours, until I move to my desk to work on grants, applications, and emails. I then continue to paint or read literature on contemporary art (I try to reserve fiction and non-art reading for home).
How does the space affect your work?
As an inaugural studio resident at Hamiltonian Artists, it feels odd and wrong to get the first drops of paint on the spotless floor and freshly built walls. It feels intimidating to create in this space for the first time, but also empowering to know I am the first of many artists who will use this space. This studio has no windows, and although that would be a setback for many people, the isolation and solitude provide me with full focus to research, paint, and think.
What do you love about your studio?
Growing up in an industrial city in Mexico, I always had to drive everywhere. Heavy traffic was part of my every day. I love that I can walk to my studio and begin planning my studio activities in my head while I walk. Because the studios are highly subsidized, there was a competitive application process I had to go through. I love that I have an affordable studio space within walking distance of my home in one of the most expensive cities in the US, something I thought was not possible.
What is your favorite art material to work with?
Oil painting will always be my preferred medium. However, my paintings rarely take the traditional form of a piece of canvas fabric stapled on a stretcher. They are three-dimensional, loud experiments telling the story of where I am from. I incorporate unconventional materials such as zippers and Mexican fabric; I sculpt with the canvas before priming it, rely on subtractive methods to represent the unseen, or attempt to formulate other painting processes.
Bob Keefer, outside Creswell, Oregon
Describe an average day in your studio.
I am a rural artist, and I work in an unusual medium: hand-colored black-and-white landscape photography. I usually start work by 8 or 9am on home studio days, when I print images and paint them over with acrylics or oil. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I am either out shooting photos or working at an office I maintain in town (we live on forested acreage 20 miles outside of Eugene). I usually have several pieces in process at any given time. By 2 or 3pm I’m ready to stop working on art, so I head outside for chores, from cutting and splitting firewood to working in the large vegetable garden just outside my studio windows.
How does the space affect your work?
This is a small studio, just 15 by 15 feet, but its windows look out on a beautiful Douglas-fir forest, which means I am always engaged with nature and the landscape even while working at my painting table (I don’t use an easel).
How do you interact with the environment outside your studio? Is there an art community near you, and if so, are you connected to it?
Eugene has quite a vibrant arts community, which I have written about in the now nearly dead daily newspaper where I was an arts writer for years and more recently in Eugene Weekly, an alt-weekly. So, yes, I am very connected to the arts world in Oregon.
What do you love about your studio?
The wood used for the interior walls of the studio was all salvaged from an 1880s-vintage homestead house that was here when we bought this property 40 years ago.
What do you wish were different?
Sometimes I wish it were bigger. Not often.
What is your favorite local museum?
The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University an hour up I-5 in Salem. It has the best 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 begin my day at 10am and work until 10pm. As a multi-disciplinary artist, I work on several projects at once. My studio space plays a crucial role in shaping my creative process.
By surrounding myself with thematically interrelated materials such as newspaper clippings, poetry texts, music, and found objects, I immerse myself in a rich tapestry of ideas. By treating my studio as an ongoing exhibition of my works, I maintain a dynamic relationship with my creations. This approach keeps me engaged with past projects while also allowing 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. As a multimedia artist and filmmaker whose works are research-based, the space also serves as a laboratory for exploration. I can interact with my research materials, interrogate their meanings, and integrate them into my process fluidly and organically.
How does the space affect your work?
Overall, my studio space is not just a physical location where I create art; it’s a dynamic ecosystem that nurtures 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 output and my journey as an artist.
How do you interact with the environment outside your studio? Is there an art community near you, and if so, are you connected to it?
My studio is part of the lively Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts community, nestled amidst the vibrant chaos of 39th Street, Port Authority, Times Square, and bustling city life. Despite the urban hustle, I find inspiration in the energy of the neighborhood. Stepping out, I absorb the rhythms of the city, from passing crowds to distant traffic. Connected to a diverse art community, including fellow artists and nearby galleries, my studio serves as both a sanctuary for creativity and a hub for collaboration. Amid all this is persistent homelessness, which opens a space for reflection and constant empathic gaze and witnessing, which keeps me in touch with my practice and the uncertain reality that lies just around the corner.
What do you love about your studio?
The afternoon light.
What do you wish were different?
More space, always.
What is your favorite art material to work with?
Indigo pigments, lately.
