As I unpack my wall of moving boxes from my recent move across country to Chicagoland, I can't help thinking about this same process in all my other studio spaces.
I have had a studio since I was 14 and I'm now 34. No, my first studio wasn't just an extra room in the house but an out building (8'x12') especially built by my dad and I for my art space. It had a garden window and a skylight, a lock on the door. I completely landscaped around it. When I left home to go to art college I had an amazing one bedroom apartment that gave up its eat in kitchen for my glass studio space, it was only 8'x8'. I am not an artist that can continue to create in such a small space so eventually I rented a loft space with a friend. It was in the back of a community center in Oakland California. With a bank of huge windows and a key for 24 hour access, it was the perfect place to make bigger work and add to my studio tools. After being there for a few years I moved both house and home a little north to Pt. Richmond where I found a treasure of an apartment with an unused carriage house out in the back, not to mention a garden space begging for attention. My partner and I refurbished the new studio, laying a new wood floor, electrical, a new wall and jacking up the sagging roof to make it all work. It was as big as my last space but with a lot less light. I did have great storage and space to set up a little gallery to sell my work. For two years I held weekly open studios on the weekends and attracted neighbors and travelers from afar.
After another 4 years in this great little garden studio I was in for another move. My partner's job relocated him to Chicago and we had a real chance to afford a home of our own with a big yard and a basement for me to set up shop in. So I think this is the best studio I've had even though I only have a small window at each end of my 12'x23' space and even though I have one inch of clearance above my head to walk around and I have to duck to avoid the radiator pipes, its mine. I'm unpacking all my sheet glass, tools, supplies and all manner of unnameable material for the last time in a long time.