Studio Space

Where do you do your art projects? If you are an artist where do you have your studio? When I was an art student my studio space varied. It could be the kitchen table, or a corner of the room that had the best light. Once I had a loft in New York City on Lispenard Street. Later I had a loft in the flower market section of New York that was my studio space for my business. Around that time I also had work space near the beach in the country, a back porch and storage shed and the dining table again.

This studio space is in the country side of France.

Don 't you love the ironstone tureen ending up as a vessel for paint brushes?

The work bench above reminds me of Steve Gianetti.

The collection of old glass bottles are perfect for arranging a study of a still life for a painting.

Plenty of room, and plenty of light.

Time to wash up for lunch...


After lunch maybe a little nap on the porch.

Maybe read a little, or write in your journal, or sketch.

Then back to work in the studio.


Here are a couple of artists: Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe.
I did not know Patti, but I casually knew Robert after he came out. He was a dear friend to a dear friend of mine.


I got to hang a out with them from time to time. My friend was a chef, and Robert was making photos and we were all bumming around. I was on my way out of my rock and roll life, but still hung out with my friends who were artists, and musicians, and actors, and poets, and dancers, and designers, and film makers (read waiters, chefs, cooks, hairdressers, stylists, and bartenders).

My friend was nearing his 40th birthday, and mine was surely on the horizon too. Robert wanted to make a 40th birthday portrait of the two of us. I had posed as an artists model for many years, and Robert wanted my friend and I to pose nude together. My friend did not want to do it. He was quite ill then, his body and face ravished by AIDS. Robert was also ill, and his signature black leather jacket looked so huge on his already slight frame, now shrinking from the illness.

I really didn't think anything of Robert wanting to take a photo of us. To me he was another boy making art, just like the rest of us. Even though they were sick, and I had already lost many friends, I never saw any of them as sick and dying. I always thought they'd beat the odds and be around forever.

They were always going to the the doctor. People who went to doctors got better. They didn't act sick. They worked, and played, and hung out and lived life. Sometimes they'd do a little stint in the hospital, but out they'd come ready to resume where they left off. It was always a shock when they didn't come out of the hospital that one last time. They're both gone now. Robert and my friend Bruce.


Patti Smith has written a pretty good book about her time in New York then (called "Just Kids"), and her life with Robert. It's on my list. I want to see what was going on in our parallel universes back in the day.


PS The dining room in 99% done. Awaiting fabric for the dining chairs. Do you want to see the reveal now, or wait for the chairs to be done?