Still organizing

I am still organizing in my studio at home...partly because I still have things to bring in to it from my old home studio.  Ah well.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours doing that kind of work. I had a lot of large sheets of Japanese papers, and other assorted fancy papers that sat in a stack about 4" tall on the bottom shelve of a work table.  It was hard to get a piece from the stack.  So, thought I, why not cut them down?  But, of course, I tear them up into smaller pieces anyway so a-cutting I did go.  Took me about an hour to get them all quartered which then made a stack of paper about 12 inches high.  However, they all fit into three wire baskets for storage in my shelving unit.  Way to go, Liz.  They are out of the way, out of the light and in manageable sizes.  Now why didn't I think of that sooner?

I also took the time to find all of the assorted small pieces of mat board and watercolor paper that had been cut and got them all in to a bin, ready for painting.  I also collected all my large sheets of watercolor paper and got them tucked away.

I did spend several hours working on a couple of collages.  I had received a bunch of new papers to use for collage (didn't I just say I had a 12" stack of papers?) which had wonderful textures.  So I just had to play with them.

Each of these is about 7.5 x 7.5 inches.  I am truly having fun.

This morning I told my husband I had a couple of projects that needed his help and he agreed to help me with them today.  I have also found that if I get my drill out and make noise with it, he comes running up to my studio to see what I am about to do and, of course, he knows how to do it better.  I just need to be sure he does it the way I want.

I had gone to Ikea to pick up some organizing stuff (my entire studio seems to have come from there) and got a shelf and a tool bar which he installed at my prized possession, my commercial sink.  Here you can see it hanging at the sink with the flatware baskets that I use to hold my brushes after I wash them.  

In this picture you can see the entire set up.  There is a metal shelf about the bar, a drain thingy for containers to dry in (lots of washing but not dishes!).  I have set this up so that I can use magnets to hold my stencils from the edge of the shelf after I wash them and they drip right in to the sink...I am just too clever!

And, after years of using a little bitty corner sink at my Oakland studio, I now have this sink which is holding a 5 gallon bucket.  The image above shows the faucet and the rinsing sprayer which really gets the paint off stencils and other stuff.  Just love it...it was probably the most expensive thing in the new studio but so worth it.  To the right and just above the drainer you can see the on demand water heater.

 

My dear husband also but a shelf up for me over my printing table.  I will get pictures of them to post also because I think that set up is really great too!

Last Thursday I began another adventure.  I had signed up for a UC Extension program in painting and had the first painting class in San Francisco.  It was so great to be back in an academic environment.  There are only 11 students so it is very nice.  The studio has lots of light and looks out over the street and is in the SFMOMA area...the museum is right across the street to I may go to SF in the morning and go to the museum and then have lunch and then to class.  The only down side is that I am commuting home on BART (our rapid transit) during rush hour when I leave and have to stand up the entire way.  holding lots of stuff....oh well, back to school I go.  Spent a ton of money buying oil paints which I have not used for 45 years in college.  When I first started painting, acrylics had come out and that is what I always worked with.  So now, this Thursday, we start painting in layers, the old master way....I just have to find three things to bring in for my still life and am looking all around the house of things I would like to paint.

I am truly on a trip of my life!  I am having so  much fun and am so energized and am stacking up a big pile of new collages.  I am also painting papers to use in my collages and will be making more paper-fabric which I can then use in my fiber art...it all comes back together.

In looking at the two collages above, the one sure looks like my fences works...guess I just can't get away from certain things.  Fences and circles are important symbols for me and do show up very frequently, whether I want them to or not!

Well, back to the studio for the day...papers to paint and collages that are ready to paint are calling me...