A Studio For Me

I have a spot at my kitchen table.  It's where I sit to eat meals, right in between Olivia and Michael.  It's also where I write. 

Many mornings it's where I photograph the sunlight falling on my breakfast.  It was still my spot when Aaron sat within hand-holding distance of me in his feeding chair.  It was how we had breakfast together before I took him to school.

Sometimes I feel like I live in that spot.  Hours a day are spent right there creating, eating, drinking, thinking, dreaming.

 There are other spaces in this house I could go, where I might even find a desk, but I gravitate towards this one.  The worn, finish-stripped wooden table and the corner with three windows and glass doors allowing the sunlight to stream in.  The coffee pot is almost within arms reach and without too much effort I can get up repeatedly to let the dogs in and out and in again.

At dinnertime, I clear away my notebooks, laptop and camera and put down place mats.  I could live in a house half the size.

In our old house, I had two desks, one for writing and one for my computer.  I still squirreled myself away at this same table in the kitchen, where I could look out a large bay window onto the street.  Sunlight was generous there, too.

In this new mode of mine, taking my creative self more seriously, I am feeling that it would be helpful to create a writing studio.  I'm being open minded about this idea, since clearly I am not drawn to office spaces.  However, the way I function now is that I create amongst mess, and mess is not supportive of creativity, especially photographing. 

In a bold, open moment, I decided I would share with you what my writing space looks like this morning.  One week past Halloween, a cold, snow-expectant, overcast November morning. 

Along the windows is "Olivia's ledge".  It is a dumping ground for anything on the kitchen table that we don't know where to put.  Her two bowls of "like" and "dislike" Halloween candy and our leftover bags.  Harry's food bowl, out of Charlie's reach.  Geraniums hastily brought inside before Hurricane Sandy to overwinter, all manner of Olivia's art projects and supplies, little toys of Aaron's.  In the corner is our "device charging center." 

I had some fun on Pinterest and started a "writing studio" board. While I can imagine myself writing in a variety of spaces, almost all the images I collected are color-filled.  A few have actual desks, some are tables and cozy nooks.  Light and color, the qualities I love to photograph most, are essential to my creativity space.

I am not sure how I will create this studio in the middle of my kitchen, the heart of our family space.  It may be portable, it may simply mean cleaning up the ledge.  It's fun to think about, though, and a positive step towards boosting my confidence.