HEART OF THE STUDIO
Yes, sorry, how unexciting: my chair! When Studio Friday proposed this theme I tried hard to come up with some other, more interesting, answer. But, honestly, this is it. The heart of the studio is where I plonk my behind down and paint. Sometimes, I stand to paint, but I thought a shot of only a few floorboards would be even less inspiring than my ratty old chair. ;-)

CROWDED
The Studio Friday meme posed the question "What is your pet peeve in the studio?" Like many other people's, mine is lack of space. This my third studio out of school, and for various reasons, each has been smaller than the last. And my work has gotten successively smaller and smaller too, probably in direct response. The last time I painted a six foot tall canvas was when I was an art student and had a school studio with a fourteen foot ceiling!

I hate to complain, because taking a global perspective, or a historical one, I appreciate how privileged I am simply to have a room of my own at all, however small. Nonetheless, I do kind of miss that thing called elbow room!

STUDIO GREED
is this week's topic over at Studio Friday (I am horribly late!) I think I've posted about this greedy aspect of my character before but oh well! Anyway, yes, art books are one of my weak spots. I love them and covet them. I have a large collection which is slowly but carefully ever-growing. The bad thing (or good thing, depending on how you look at it) is that these books are SO EXPENSIVE that I can only afford a new one every now and again. And for some reason, they are not all that easy to buy used on-line as you would think. After ordering such copies, I often get an e-mail saying "Sorry! We thought we had that one but we don't. Refund forthcoming." Are art books harder to keep track of than other types of books? Not sure what this is all about. Ha, that reminds me: once I even got a long rambling excuse from a seller apologizing and explaining that her golden retriever had started chewing the book when she left it on the table before wrapping it. The dog ate your art book, OK!

STUDIO FRIDAY - PORTFOLIO
The Studio Friday topic today is Portfolios. Somebody suggested the topic by writing in:
"I've never put one together. I would be very interested to see and hear what everyone else has as a portfolio and what makes up one"
~ Jo

Of course there are lots of different kinds of portfolios used for different purposes. My main portfolio is really my website. There you can see samples of my work, my resume and statement and lots lots more. I update it pretty frequently. It may not be up to the minute but it is up to the last half hour! But occasionally you need to put together a packet of information that can be held in the hand and passed around at a committee meeting. A school recently asked me for just such a packet (or small portfolio) on my Genre of Inclusion project. They are considering inviting me to exhibit, and I was very flattered and happy to be considered. I decided to put together four or five packets while I was at it: here you see my assembly line spread out on a card table. Inside I put copies of my resume, artist statement, copies of reviews and articles on the project and of course, print-outs of a selection of pieces from the project. Because, yes, the whole presentation is important, but of course, it all hinges on the actual work!

For this kind of portfolio, which is sent to an institution or person, I like to make it semi-disposable. I always include a SASE, but just in case it doesn't make it home, the loss should not be catastrophic. So, it is all copies of things or computer print-outs: no originals. I use a simple 3-ring vinyl presentation folder and plastic sleeves from a local office supply store.

The odd thing about getting all prepared like this is that you immediately find you have a use for each and every one of the packets and you wish you'd done more!