the studio

Sometimes it is necessary to refocus, to simplify, and to bring all incoming and outgoing energy together into a place where creativity can be central to everyday living.  I am so lucky to have a room in my home that is going to help me do this.

Technically, it's called a conservatory, ". . . a room with glass walls and ceiling attached to a building by one wall, and generally used for the growing and display of plants."  I dislike this term and I've always felt weird calling it that, it sounds so formal, and I am anything but formal.

A few years ago, while trying to decide what to do with all of my creative outlets, how to rebrand my painting, photography and design into one, it all came together while using an online translator to find another term for this room.  Being Scotts, Irish and German I go to those first and I rarely find a useful (or pretty) word in German, but this time I was pleasantly surprised to see Wintergarten. It was perfect.  My favorite season.  When the garden is sleeping (requiring much less of my time) and covered in a sparkling, frosty, fog embraced cocoon.

Since we moved here I have struggled with what to do with this room, and how to find time to create, and how to balance time with the family and work.  I think turning this space into more of a wintergarden, and less of a conservatory is the key.  Where I can go at any hour and grab a pen or brush without worrying about making a mess.  A place where a vague idea can grow and become something more.  A greenhouse for art.

So there it is, a renewed space, full of furniture projects right now to make it what I need it to be, but a hopeful and exciting start of things to come from a new studio space, from the wintergarden.