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Some watercolour abstract process sketches.

http://spencersheehankalina.com

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Digital Studio Diary #3

I am a failed lover; in navigating my relationship ending with my lover, I find myself moving into my family home and in a new office space to work. This office space is being lent to me in the context of it organizing/facilitating my practice as a healing helper for the small community I have moved to.

For me, my practice as a healing helper and an artist are entwined. As such, the space is being used right now to help me work through my creative back log so I can focus in on the other important things that need to get done. It is also going to be a launching pad for regrowing the roots of my creative art practice… whatever that may or may not look like. In the death of my relationship is fertile soil I will regrow myself anew from with joy, love and hope.

After getting organized and more at ease with everything, the next question will be, “What kind of an artist do you want to be?”

For now, all I know is that I want to be. Today that is enough for me.

http://spencersheehankalina.com

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This is a project in the making. I’m still figuring out what I am doing. It is a teddy bear that is being transfigured into something else.

http://spencersheehankalina.com

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Once I made a Pompom.

http://spencersheehankalina.com

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A collage that was never finished and didn’t survive the closure and moving of my studio space. I really enjoyed this piece but it was left waiting for some other element to come onto the page to complete it before its ultimate demise.

http://spencersheehankalina.com

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Found photo

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Found rock art on an adventure.

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Sometimes the best art is of the earth. Some freshly picked lettuce from my garden. First of the season.

http://spencersheehankalina.com

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Digital Studio Diary #2

I spent the day rummaging through all the detritus brought about by the tail end of the move. Sometimes I’d pull myself away and manage a doodle, a scribble of words, an act of grooming or something of the other but largely I was the sole tourist in the aftermath-chaos of my haphazard move. I found some things I set aside to do later, others I tossed into the garbage bin or recycling. Some items were pressed into my creative process book so I can reference them later. Whatever thoughts may come from what is, this is my studio space now and I just make the most of it.

Sometimes a change brings about unexpected outcomes; in the home studios I’d been working in previously I was busy with pencil crayons but since moving into the campsite with the trailer I’m finding myself drawn to stitching and fabrics. Who knows where this will end up, for now it’s all just play. I have developed a strange affinity for Swedish dishcloths as well… though what this means and is the start of, who knows?

Today, as I walked about in the warmth of the mornings gentle sunlight I couldn’t help but think that cliche thought we all come across in nature, I could be a tree; I imagined myself nourished and then nourishing- maybe my roots could run deep and fill me with enough for my art practice to perpetuate into tomorrow, I thought.

With all that day dreaming I was ready to go inside and finish writing another cookbook, which I managed to accomplish despite feeling desperate for a nap as the day pushed on.

After dinner I return to where my art supplies are strewn, this is my studio now. I doodle and then write this so I can definitely say this to myself: you are an artist and you showed up today.

My website:

http://spencersheehankalina.com

New Cookbook:

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Love this!

Theodor Heuss Haus Stuttgart

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A collage destroyed in dismantling studio, placed into my creative process book.

http://spencersheehankalina.com

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Wonderful <3

Luis Gonzalez Palma, La Luna, 1988, Liquid light emulsion print on antique book paper with applied media

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Digital Studio Diary #1

And now I write about the studio. I’ve abandoned mine, turned over the keys and stopped paying rent, moved my artwork into the forest where it is at the mercy of the world’s forces and I’ve hoped for the best.

I’ve given up having a studio… something I’ve done for five years now. I thought this meant I would no longer make art but no, I am an artist. I persist to create despite myself and everything about me.

This morning, I discovered many papers were warped and maimed by the dew. In the country, the dew grows more ample and frequent than the city. The work left over night had been turned into a puddle of garbage. At first, I was so sad- years of work damaged and destroyed. Now, I accept that art is a process and not everything will persist into tomorrow, it’s natural and okay.

For today, I leave my body of work open to the elements but hopefully soon I’ll learn how to protect it in this new space I will turn into a studio and home.

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Quick sketches of a couple garden ornaments done in some salvaged paper.

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Quick ideation sketch for a piece of work later on. Two blue chairs in a sketchbook (reclaimed book) and painted with watercolour.

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Be your own star! ⭐️

Working on a colouring pencil drawing.

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Here’s a post it note that I made of my lil’ doggy in a basket. I’m transitioning how I operate in space as an artist and changing my studio space. This piece is for sale; let’s not get it twisted, everything is for sale when you’re a struggling artist.

http://spencersheehankalina.com