I have been an artist since I could pick up a pencil. When I was a child I loved redrawing some of my favorite cartoons. Often, I would get frustrated because I could not make my drawing looks exactly like the pictures on TV or in a book. So my parents purchased a little tykes tracing station station for me. It resembled a drafting table built to about one-quarter of the “adult” size, but was made of red and blue plastic with rounded kid-friendly corners. The best part was the built-in light box beneath the surface of the table. I could trace anything I wanted. Learn where lines were supposed to go, and that I could change those lines.

My first real drafting and artist’s table was gifted to me by my dad when I was in high school. It was his old drafting table from college.

Dad’s college table came with me to my first apartment after I graduated. The flat was on the first floor directly behind a matured evergreen so it was very dark. I found a space against a blank wall. I nestled the table next to my easel by the only window that got any light.

The drafting table accompanied me to my second apartment post university and even had it’s own room (about 65 sqft!). Although this room was an upgrade from the last, being on a third story with sunlit windows, I learned it became an oven in the summer, the epicenter of an annual ladybug infestation in the fall, and an icebox in the winter.

Then in 2017 my husband and I bought a house. Surely there we would have space enough for my table. I found a room even bigger than the last (around 90sqft!). But we were back to no natural light save for about one hour per day in the summer. At least it was air conditioned and there were no ladybugs.

Then in 2020, we renovated our home which doubled our space. Coincidentally I was debating on if I should even pursue art any further while also still designing a studio space into our renovation. The heart wants what the heart wants. And it wanted me to keep making art. To have that special space, to never let it go, and to never give up.

The new space is always a work in progress. I don’t think I will ever want it to stop changing or to stop dreaming of how to improve it. The studio keeps evolving, just like my work, and just like me.