MAKING SPACE FOR YOURSELF
I heard it again this week. Someone confiding to me that they were an artist, but didn’t have a studio. They were waiting for a studio, or giving up a studio or putting off setting up a studio. I cringe, because I remember…. I remember the kitchen table thing, the baskets of materials stacked all over the house, all of it.
I’ve heard amazing stories over the years about the lengths people—usually women—will go to, to put off their art. I’ve been there and done that, so I do understand. I know what it's like to feel I'm not good enough, I don't have time, to feel like it's too selfish to want more....
Does this sound like you?
If so, I hope I can be a tiny voice that gives you hope and reminds you who—and what—you are.
You are an artist. Make space for that.
I had such a voice when I was first starting out. I attended a workshop by Deborah Kruger years ago called “Empowerment for Women in the Arts”. You can read more about Deborah and see her artwork at http://www.deborahkruger.com/ or click on the title.
It’s hard to tell what has to happen first for someone to get started on their path, and maybe it’s different for everyone. For me, it was believing it was possible for me to BE an artist. (My exact words were, “I have to be an artist or I’m going to die. I don’t even care if I’m a very good artist anymore, I just have to be one.”) The studio followed.
But a studio is important. It is the promise you make to yourself to be the artist you've always wanted to be, a promise made physical.
Most people think of a studio as a huge, lofty room with skylights filled with everything you need to make art. That’s a DREAM studio, to be sure. But I think of a studio as any place you dedicate to your desire to be an artist. Whether you sing, write, dance, paint, collage, knit, garden, it’s any space you carve out of your life, your home and your time to be the artist you dream of being.
And it can’t be a space that has to be cleaned or put away when other people need it. It’s got to be a place that stays “set up”. Not only so you can jump in and get started on your work with a moment’s notice. But so whenever you look at it, you are reminded profoundly that just as that space is always ready for you, so is your dream. It’s always ready for you to pick up.
Look around you. When I visit someone's home, I can always find the place dedicated to the children (and their jillions of toys), a space dedicated to the TV, a space dedicated to a beloved pet.
Surely, out of all these spaces dedicated to the needs of others and dedicated to things, there is a place for…your art?
If your children “need” a separate room to play in, surely there is a table, a closet, a corner in your house where YOU can play, too? If your partner has a room for his/her interests/hobbies/collections, there surely is a place for YOU and your interests? Look at the “guest” room set aside for use once or twice a year. What is more important, a once-a-year guest's ultimate comfort, or the joy in your heart that comes from making art?
Be selfish this year. Go on, it won’t kill you. Find a space for you. And your art. Whatever your art is. Make a physical place for it in your life, however you can.
I promise you this. You will not regret it. Ever.
