"My Little Corner of the World"

This is what I call my creative place, my atelier...my studio.

In this little 5 x 6 ft. space, tucked neatly between the upstairs railing and the wall, I sit and create artwork for my various book projects. The space itself could be considered wasted space by most people, I suppose one could shove a dresser or bookcase back there, but it just seems a little, oh I don't know...out of the way.

My drafting table was a cast off from my wife's workplace, no one else wanted it, so she brought it home. It fits perfectly between the railing and the wall! My cheap, imitation wood, three drawer filing cabinet, (I've had that thing for years, I think I bought it at Shopko) also fit like a glove. Even the office chair was a freebie...my entire studio just sort of fell together, a bunch of rejects that fit perfectly in a wasted space, just wonderful!

I have a little radio/cd player tucked under the drafting table for music, though I usually hear every sound that goes on downstairs from the open stairwell directly to my right anyways, I've dropped more than a few paintbrushes and pencils down those stairs. I have a window a little off to the right as well, we had to put a tiny jog in the railing to compensate for it, otherwise the railing would have ended up in the middle of said window. But that's okay! That tiny jog allowed the perfect spot for my cheap, imitation wood, Shopko filing cabinet. Things do happen for a reason.

And so there I sit, wedged in the corner between the stairway and an over sized dresser at the end of our upstairs bedroom. It is rather cozy I must say, sometimes a bit of a squeeze to maneuver around in that tiny space, considering that I am not the most compact person on the face of the earth. But it's my space, my place to create, to paint, to think...to dream. I should really go there more often, but sometimes the ambition to get up there needs a little prodding.

I sorely realize that I would be a much better artist if I would only sit down and sketch once in awhile, just do a painting for God's sake!! I seem to be a binge artist... I can spend months away from my drawing board, but once I get in the groove of doing some illustrations I can spend countless hours involved in my work. I feel a little rusty at first, but as soon as I get back into the swing of things I seem to make some artistic progress. But once the project it complete, I'll be gone for another couple months, that just seems to be my way of doing things.

Typically I get back into the mood to paint at this time of year, which seems to be happening now, I've got a number of illustrative ideas running around in my head right at this very instant!!

I hope to tackle an older story this winter, I created a number of illustrations for this story in the past...most of which don't impress me anymore. I thought I was done with this story a couple years back, but now I know I can do better...it's time to get back into that wasted space and start working again!!