I receive
Robert Genn's newsletter every week. Each post is inspiring in some way, but there are a few that deeply resonate with me. The post in a recent email was one of those. I would like to share a portion of it and encourage you to stop by Robert's site and check out some of his other writing. He is a painter, specifically, but his words resonate with artists across the board.
My print table and my sewing table are my main "easels". So, dear reader, I ask you: what is your "easel"? Where does your creative alchemy occur?
Here is a portion of Robert's e-newsletter:
The American architect and author Anthony Lawlor looks at rooms as containers
for the elevation of the human spirit. The kitchen, for example, is a sacred place
where raw foods are transformed by the alchemy of heat into sustenance and
delicacy. Bedrooms are sanctuaries for the mysterious transformations of sleeping
and loving. Bathrooms are closed retreats of personal cleanliness and hygiene.
Apart from perhaps the nursery, nothing compares to the remarkable container known as the studio. Here is a sanctuary where mere materials are transformed into objects of beauty. Like the laboratory, the studio is a domain of imaginative possibilities. |
|
|
At the center of most studios is a piece of furniture called the easel. Whether simple and humble or complex and magnificent, it is at this unit that the creator sets her forces in motion. |
|
|
You might pause to consider how blessed are we who daily stand or sit before the easel. Ideally, it should be a strong object, so it can be pushed hard against, or be made to hold rock-steady during our more delicate passages. The easel needs to be well lit from above so those born on it can be properly examined, pampered, and reconsidered.
|
|
|
The easel is an altar to productivity. Traditional altars have been places of worship and sacrifice, and the studio easel is no exception. He who would do well at one must respect and honour the gods of quality, truth, composition, imagination, pattern, perspective, story, drawing, colour, fantasy and flair. To stand or sit at one, even in play, you need to prepare yourself for labour. |
|
|
The easel is also a place of sacrifice. Substandard passages or whole works are summarily struck down at this often troubling altar--but rebirth is its usual fruit. Both honour and responsibility go with your easel, your altar. |
|
|
|
|
|
a thought provoking question. I have three primary "easels": my cutting table, my ironing station and my sewing table and I probably use them primarily in that order.
ReplyDeleteVery thought provoking - my main easel is my table - however when I am very messy I use the "floor easel" as well.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing a portion of Robert's newsletter. I'm going to sign up for it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sue and Gina - thought provoking post. My main "easel" is a dining room table that my grandparents used but any surface will do when the inspiration strikes.
I love this. 'the remarkable container known as the studio' - stated so beautifully. My design/cutting table is my easel.
ReplyDeleteMy easel is my floor, remarkably humbling as I bow down to reach it. And it is amazingly flexible to work on small pieces or very large ones. Great essay!
ReplyDeletehey admin
ReplyDeleteThis article is really insightful, it went ahead and made my day, you are seriously a professional blogger
My easel is my desk and a wooden table in the back bedroom. Also a space at my workplace is also an easel where I do art pages when work is slow
ReplyDeleteMy easel quite often spills over to my office desk at work when I am being obsessed by new ideas.
ReplyDeleteThanks for introducing me to Robert Genn! His articulation of the ideal artist's experience of personal creative place/space is beautiful. I am still trying to find and develop my "easel" in my tiny apartment. Right now it is the kitchen countertop!
ReplyDeleteKitchen countertops are good! I guess necessity really is the mother of invention, and it is true of work spaces, too.
ReplyDelete