The Artist’s Magazine – October 2019

24 Artists Magazine October 2019

Prime STUDIO STAPLES

THE BIG CLEAN

“When, after 10 years of parental care, both of my parents

had passed on, I felt that one stage of my life had ended

and another had begun,” says Katherine Chang Liu. “Over

the course of that decade of caretaking, a lot of things had

accumulated in my studio, and my working space had

shrunk. So I did a big purge.

“I started with old work, tearing up a lot of old paintings

I’d done on paper and gessoing a lot of the work I’d painted

oncanvasorpanel.I tooka coldeyetowhatneededtobe

discarded,andwithina week,I’dreducedtheamountof

stuffinmystudioby 75 percent.

“ThenI didthesamewithartsuppliesandartbooks.

Artsupplieswenttolocalschoolchildren,andthereading

materialwenttothelocallibrary.

“Afterthispurge,I reorganizedeverything,andmy

studiobecamespaciousandmoreefficient.”

THEESSENTIALSKETCHBOOK

“Likea lotofartists,I’ma horizontalstacker,”saysMark

Mehaffey.“Icanfilleveryflatspaceavailabletome.Weeks

later,I canrememberwhereI putsomethingdown.Rosie,

mywifeandbusinesspartner,however,isaninveterate

picker-upper.IfI putanythingdowninthehouseand

expectit tobetherea dayortwolater,it’snot.Ithasbeen

pickedupandputaway.Drivesmecrazy!

“SoRosiehasbeenbannedfromtouchinganythingin

thestudio,evensomethingthathasbeeninthesameplace

forweeks.Driveshernuts!Havingsaidthat,I giveRosie

everycredit.I couldn’tdowhatI dowithoutherhelp.

“Theonethingthatreallydoeskeepmeorganized,

though,is mysketchbook.It’smyplacetofindoutif anidea

mightwork;toseeif a designis sound;toexplorevariations;

andtomakea connection.Mysketchbookkeepsmeontrack

andorganized.And,I alwaysknowwhereI putit down.”

Anne Hevener is the editor-in-chief of Artists Magazine,

Pastel Journal and Watercolor Artist. She’s in the (dreaded)

process of decluttering her editorial offi ce of years’ worth of

papers and fi les.

“I WANT TO KNOW WHERE

MY BRUSHES ARE AT ALL

TIMES, RIGHT DOWN TO

WHERE THE NO. 4 IS PLACED

VERSUS THE NO.6.”

— LAURIN MCCRACKEN

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