My Workspace

If I'm not grading or prepping for work, I'm often reading, writing, blogging, painting, or a combination of several of those things.  I do a lot of my work from home, so I find that my office atmosphere needs to be precisely "me."  While my husband does store his archery equipment in my office (or, as we have come to call it, the studio), it really has become my little area of the house.  Since I spend quite a bit of time in there, I've collected many posters, paintings, art supplies, journals, etc. that have accumulated over the past couple years Justin and I have lived in our current home. 

My studio inspires me.  It comforts me.  It draws me in.

It allows me to get work done.  To be creative.

My desk.  I love my desk.  I found this desk and chair at an antique shop near where I live.  I fell in love with it and my wonderful husband proceeded to carry it out of the store and into our van in the middle of a snowstorm.  Antiques bring me joy.  Especially this desk.  (Isn't the design on the chair awesome!?)  And then there's my computer.  I like to think of my computer lid as more of a "scrapbook."  That's where all the random stickers I accumulate end up. 

So there's the cloth poster of Jim Morrison covering the window.  And yes, that is a Breaking Bad poster in the background.  The cork boards are covered with some original paintings and photography as well as some random photographs I have accumulated over the years (including a signed photograph of The Doors).  Also, the poster on the ground that you can't see very well is a thrift store find - it's a framed picture of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.  Love.  (This room also doubles as a small storage space - just look at my husband's archery stuff and a crate full of laundry supplies).  The joys of living in a small space!

While the built-in drawers look cool, they are mostly a pain.  The house is so old that the drawers are warped and barely open.  And if you can get them open, you will never get them shut.  But this is where I keep some of my art supplies - colored pencils, markers, pens, etc.  I also keep some art projects up on this shelf - some 3D collage work and a couple collages on canvas.  And some photo albums.  I painted a mural on that sloping wall, but I couldn't resist hanging a couple more posters that I didn't have room for (I mean, how could I pass up the Vampire Weekend poster!?).  And somehow my husband's bow is always infiltrating my creative atmosphere.

Some poetry awards adorned with the specific poems that won the awards.  Some more original paintings.  Collage work.  A shout out to Caitlin Horrocks' This is Not Your City.  The lone electrical outlet in the studio, mostly used for my computer power cord or the paper shredder (don't want to end up like that poor guy on Identity Thief).

And, finally, my wonderfully vintage built-in storage cabinet.  The doors and latches are original from when the house was built in the early 1900s.  This is where I keep the paintings and collage work I don't have room to put out, photography supplies (blank CDs, business cards, etc.), paints, old books I buy from Goodwill and destroy for the sake of collage, photo albums, and work stuff (textbooks, prep materials, etc.).  And yes, I do have an anatomy coloring book in there.  And several vintage anatomy textbooks.  And yes, that is a replica of Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night facing backwards behind the desk. 

I love this room.  I love to put art and photography on display, whether it is mine or the art of someone I admire.  I have Dali's The Metamorphosis of Narcissus hanging in our spare bedroom.  And I love movie posters as a source of art.  I have Alex DeLarge's face from A Clockwork Orange hanging in our bedroom alongside the battered faces of Brad Pitt and Edward Norton on the poster for Fight Club.

It's comforting.  It's inspiring.  It draws me in.