Jennie Johnston: Making Your Studio Work for You

Space and making art go hand and hand. I have seen the lengths that artists will go to to make their work. Often the circumstances are less than ideal, and perhaps you, like me, have dreamed of a large, open, light filled studio space in which to create all day long.
The reality is that many of us need to work where we live. Especially in urban environments rent prices are high and space is at a premium. As you are building your audience and artistic practice it is often not cost effective to rent out a separate space for working in.
This is certainly the case for myself at this stage in my career. I love to look at artist work spaces and dream of "someday" but what am I doing in the meantime?

The third bedroom of our townhouse is my studio space. It is not a large room, it measures around 10 by 15 feet. The other function of this space is that it has to be a guest room. The first thing my husband and I considered when we were setting the space up was how to make it comfortable for guests who would be using the space 20% of the year, and how to optimise the space as a studio/office the majority of the year. We decided that a Murphy Bed installed in the closet space was our best option.

While the guest room is set up my studio is placed into rubber bins and moved into the master bedroom against the far wall.

I have streamlined the process to get the moving part down to about 30 minutes and everything fits under or over top of height adjustable desks. It has taken me several years to get my studio this efficient.