I remember when I read the first of Woolf writing of Judith Shakespeare, the fictional character she developed, a sibling to the bard, unable to study, the first Yentl of sorts, beaten for wanting to marry for love, forbidden to read because she had too many household chores to attend. The importance for having a space that was just mine to write or create or even just read seemed of vital importance. I have been working to organize the billions of beads that are in my studio along with another desk I'd filled with papers, pages of french literature, tiny pictures of birds, rubber stamps, glitter, tiny tubes of glitter. I had filled yet another space to be creative and I had room so why not make that room even more my own? I had thought on this long and hard not wanting to take over too much space with my creative pursuits hearing from more than one person, "you need fewer interests." especially when they saw my desk, the desk that sits right outside my kitchen, where I could sit and paint and still watch over a cooking pot of soup.
And Woolf was right, of course she was right, I was so excited about having more space to make a soft place to paint where the light would be just right was more than a lingering thought, but a mission I guess. I looked at desks, hundreds and hundreds of desks, not really impressed with the modern pressboard issue of a desk. So I wandered over to a 2nd hand store and found a dining room set that was gently loved but worn well and used thousands of times. The table makes for a perfect desk, lots of room, no fear because of how little I paid for it that I would ruin anything with paint. It came with 9 pieces, but I asked them to keep the chairs and resell them because I wanted the chair to be wicker, wicker felt like summer to me.
You can see from the photo that the china cabinet sits on the back perfectly well. It felt to me that the set was only biding time as a dining set and waiting to be my painting desk. I have filled the buffet that sat under that china cabinet with paints, and more paints and brushes and things I love. I will post photos of that when I am done with the lamps. I think I want to make lamps to put on top or perhaps take some lamps I've found apart and make one tall lap with giant bubble bases made of wondrous glass that they just don't make anymore. Yes, I love old things, repurposing them, wondering who or what used and loved these things and delighting in finding my own way to use them. The piece came with a pretty carved buffet that has wheels on the bottom. I had them put it in my living room it just feels good there, a place to hold art books and my Spring collage, filled with images from old magazines, photos I've taken, little garden magazine clips and set in an old barn window on foam board so I can change it out when I am thinking all I want to see is summer flowers or fall leaves. I can't wait to fill the shelves in the china cabinet with little boxes filled with this or that, something to ponder on a summer afternoon while painting, pausing to finally make a decision about what I am going to do with a box of glass buttons. I found the bunny at the 2nd hand store as well. He's handsome and he is marking the days until easter. After I think I will put him in the garden and let him keep watch there. Yes, a garden, it's almost time to plant and after the longest winter I can remember, I am ready, oh so ready.
The Indigo Girls, how they do amaze me, telling a story about a published diary and how it can change one heart, one woman, one thought at a time, creating rooms all over the world.
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