A View From the Easel

Welcome to the 279th installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists find creative kinship online and breathe in the sea air from an open window.

Want to take part? Check out our submission guidelines and share a bit about your studio with us through this form! All mediums and workspaces are welcome, including your home studio.

Colette Copeland, Granbury, Texas

How long have you been working in this space?

Over a year, but I’ve been in Texas for the past 13 years. Before that, a decade in Philly.

Describe an average day in your studio.

My studio is a multipurpose workspace. As an interdisciplinary artist who teaches, writes, curates, and creates, there isn’t a set daily routine. Each day is different depending on the projects. I usually have a cup of homemade chai down at the dock/lakeside to ground myself for the day. A morning walk in nature or dance class ensures that creativity flows. I do not listen to music or podcasts while I work; I have found that I crave silence. Also, since much of my work is digitally based, I need full attention if I am editing video and/or sound. I am usually working on many projects at once. I like to balance the longer projects with short, experimental play in the studio to bring a balance and avoid creative burnout.

How does the space affect your work?

I have beautiful light and my space is filled with art, collected objects, books, and ephemera that inspire creativity. Facing the window, my desk is made from an old refinished wood door, and the texture brings me pleasure and a feeling of groundedness. The hardwood floors are perfect for dance breaks during the day.

How do you interact with the environment outside your studio?

Fort Worth, Texas, is my closest IRL community. I’ve been writing for Glasstire, one of the longest-running online art publications in the US, for 12 years, so that helps with regional community. My online community is The Alternative Art School. I cannot say enough about how being part of a global artist community has transformed and inspired my creative practice. We meet in Zoom workshops, artist and curator lectures, and work/crit/share sessions. I realized that this community is vital to my growth as an artist in Texas. Collaborations and opportunities abound.

What do you love about your studio?

Everything! Light, art, ephemera, openness, the lake view, quiet.

What do you wish were different?

My distance from urban centers makes for lots of time in the car, but I don’t miss living in suburbia or the daily city commute and grind.

What is your favorite local museum?

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

What is your favorite art material to work with?

Video and sound.

Erin Parish, Miami Beach, Florida

How long have you been working in this space?

Two years.

Describe an average day in your studio.

My studio is an alternative space, a new iteration for today’s times, one that I think we will increasingly see since all the wealthy people inhabit all the loft spaces. My studio is in my South Beach condo building in a former storage room, which is 1,000 square feet and has cement walls, floors, and high ceilings with fluorescent lights. It is my artist paradise. I get to it by walking on the pool deck populated with sunbathers. I like to get there when it is still dark outside. I have to stop myself from starting new works when the others need time to dry or sit. I take a nap in the afternoon, which coincides with the hottest part of the day in my sun-filled sweltering studio. It has vents to the open air and 15-foot ceilings so that an air conditioner would be nearly useless. Sometimes, happily, birds fly in.

Around 6pm, I return to the studio and am stunned by the sunset of Biscayne Bay. Every day is fantastic. I have a wall of frosted floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors, but I need my privacy. It is incredible to be grappling with aesthetic decisions and nuances and then step out to the wonderment of the ever-changing, moody sunset vista. I think it makes sense for artists to look for those unused, “undesirable” spaces that exist in recent construction, often in the building’s bowels.

How does the space affect your work?

It has allowed me to expand beyond my wildest imagination, into dormant mental creational territory I thought I’d never touch.

How do you interact with the environment outside your studio?

There is a strong art community in Miami, and I am a regular at many events. I write criticism for Art Burst Miami, the only place here for that. I curate and also teach at Miami Dade College.

What do you love about your studio?

Its location, the space, the light, the ventilation, the high ceilings, the safety, not needing to drive there, and how I get there by walking next to the pool deck directly on Biscayne Bay with a view of downtown Miami. Plus, it is literally underneath my apartment.

What do you wish were different?

I wish I had air conditioning and a bathroom, except then I wouldn’t be able to afford it.

What is your favorite local museum?

The Rubell Museum.

What is your favorite art material to work with?

Everything.