The Civilized Furniture

I couldn't help but notice none of the artists in Fig's book mentioned nary a word about blogging their guts out as part of their daily routine. (Big spike in hits coming up; everyone wants to know about "my routine".) I bet Anne Truitt would have mentioned it had time and space and technology aligned.

I think we all should take a moment to describe a typical day.

I loved the work table question. It made me think about how important some pieces of furniture are and my history with them. I'm a scavenger, so none of my furniture is custom-made, so to speak. I constructed a bench to hold my large paintings, but since I am not a carpenter/woodworker by any stretch of the imagination, I got too attached to it. It's the only example of my patience, precision and ability to make something normal, aesthetic and functional, so after a few years on studio duty, I gave it a nice mahogany stain to match a homeless desk I found and refinished, and brought it in the house to live amongst the civilized furniture.

I also need to mention how oddly weird and refreshing the photo of Charles Burchfield working in his studio is (see previous post) compared to all the white cube, lofted, sky-lit spaces we tend to associate with real artists. It's nice to remember that while ideal workspaces are great, they're not mandatory.