carlyn yandle
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Epiphany: the studio is a workspace, not a salon

4/10/2015

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There was no getting around it -- literally. After a few weeks away from the studio I arrived viewing it with fresh yet loathsome eyes. There was no room to move here, let alone swing a cat. It suddenly dawned on me that the reason I bolted is I was enduring 'stuff-creep', working in little 12-inch-square surfaces and building nothing but resentment.

This is the typical love-hate relationship that makers have with the precious remaining studio spaces in a town transforming into a resort city of often-empty residential investment units. We have no choice but to think differently about how to make space to make, to reflect, to exchange ideas, to breathe.

A quick tour of the craigslist 'artists' category reveals how many locals are trying to hold onto their threatened studios.
One option is pack up everything and sublet it for part of the year to make enough coin to pay the always-increasing rents for the remaining months. Another is to sacrifice the space by subdividing it, or even share it in daily shifts by storing all work at the end of the day, like back in art school. Those of us who aren't (yet) willing to make that kind of sacrifice are constantly on the hunt to make the best use of the little space we have. This is how I've become addicted to garage storage porn.

Yes, while other people are checking their Facebook status or Instagramming or Angrybirding, I'm googling images of revamped New Jersey garages. My pulse races when I spot a particularly sexy idea that I can adapt for sorting paint, storing rolls of canvas or organizing all the found stuff essential to my sculptural work.
PictureMy uncle's workshop (Carlyn Yandle photo)
But while I was away I had an epiphany as I glimpsed into my very-skilled uncle's workshop. I've been doing it all wrong. I've been trying to contain and conceal my stuff when I should have been lining it all up to play.

I have been so bent on creating blank walls and empty surfaces by stowing my tools and materials in cubbies, under counters, in drawers and behind curtains that I didn't want the hassle of hauling it all out -- or putting it all back. The neatness has been paralyzing because just the thought of the clean-up is too high-maintenance. My thinking has been more salon than workshop. 

Now I see that seeing is everything and everything needs to be in its place but within eyesight and arm's length too. More like a working kitchen, or a ship's engineering room; less like an all-white micro-condo.

I am reminded of the old Gary Larson cartoon of the one rat saying to the other with hands on hips, "Crikey, it's supposed to look like a rat's nest."

***

Some working-studio ideas to steal, from one storage-porn addict to all the others out there:

PictureIkea knife magnets hold brushes so that they dry with the bristles down.
 

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Paint tubes hanging by bull clips. Why didn't I think of this?
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No more rummaging for tools hidden in boxes stored in cupboards
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Somewhere to put the ladder -- or rolls of canvas or paper
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Do-it-yourself idea for vertical deep storage of all those bins
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...and a way to get up to that storage: shelf stairs
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Words are not enough to capture the seduction of distraction

6/6/2014

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PictureDistracts #1, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 33"W x 27"H.
To me, the easiest part about carving out a place in the visual arts world is writing something about it. Yet most of my artist colleagues don't know how I make myself do it on a weekly basis. Easy. It only took 20 years of deadline writing for newspapers.

'Easiest' isn't quite the right word; it's more like 'reliable.' I can rely on the fact that if I sit down at a blank screen, soon words will link into sentences, inspired and connected by images. It's really just a habit at this point. If I don't get the chance to try to make literal sense of the past week, things start to swirl up into a ball of confusion. But once it's out there, it's done and I can move on. 

PictureDistracts #2, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 33"W x 27"H.
If only my days at my shared studio were as reliable. I wish I could start the morning with the same confidence as I stare at the freshly gesso'd blank canvas, and have the same conversation I get from writing a column (okay, blog). The two sides of my brain do not dance together at the studio. I do not enjoy the small eureka moments of understanding, or any great leaps forward in concept. And unlike weekly writing, I can't see that I'm creating any history of my process/progress. 

PictureDistracts #3, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 33"W x 27"H.
Some days I feel like I'm just painting myself into corners, or cycling back to where I started months ago. I often need to call in the reinforcements — artist friends — for a studio visit, when I ask, "Am I flat-lining here?" or "Am I a one-trick pony?"

But words work for me. Letters soon coalesce into strands of ideas and at the moment of this writing I see one taking shape as I type, and drop in these images of my latest paintings. 



PictureDistracts #4, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 33"W x 27"H.
This much I know is true: This is the most distractive time in human history and I live in a neighbourhood that is arguably the nation's capital of everything yoga. As I ride to the studio, I'm generally pre-occupied with this idea of the swelling dedication to personal, meditative practice juxtaposed with the seduction of our screens and the growing realization that our personal identities can be stolen in a click of a button.

PictureDistracts #5, 2014, acrylic on panel, 14"W x 16"H.
 I think about  how we crave peace of mind and heart but are captivated by the fantastic and unfathomable, packaged in high-def or in 3-D, with same-day shipping, something to Like, Share, Tweet, and post to Instagram/Tumblr/Pinterest.

Some days at the studio I just need to retreat, retrace past meditative practices, like lace-making. Other days I need to represent the fracturing of that focus.

If painting really is a conversation the painter has with the materials, surface, technique and image, I'm seeing that this is talking about mapping out an understanding of the here and now, where words fail.

PictureDistracts #6, 2014, acrylic on panel, 16"W x 20"H.
It's somewhere in the uneasy spaces between the digital and the handmade, the personal craft expression and the art and decor industry.

Put into words, it's a little terrifying to be in unexplored territory with no obvious path ahead.

I'm just bush-wacking, looking for a clearing. 

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Designs on the halter dress-tool belt combo

1/30/2014

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PictureThe denim Dakota, from hedleyandbennett.com
Most people will admit that their everyday clothes are a sort of uniform.  We need to keep it pretty simple because we're likely dressing in the dim of the still-dark morning when we'd rather spend those extra minutes sleeping.

My own uniform is basically a T-shirt, tights and boots under what I view as a Western-secular abaya — a wrap sweater, long hoodie or whatever else is lying around — and a raincoat. Just this side of 'not crazy' and pretty functional for weekdays at the studio.

It's taken some trial and error to figure out how to adapt this bike-friendly getup to a day of painting or carving or casting or sewing, climbing up and down ladders or working on the floor. I need a combo toolbelt and day dress, something I can switch out with the sweater-abaya thingy.

These designs take time. You need to walk a mile in a maker's apron to figure out how it needs to function. That's what former culinary school grad Ellen Bennett did. As a cook she saw the need that led to her own L.A.-based online business, Hedley and Bennett. I'm inspired, and denim is definitely the way to go. The tool pockets are essential but the backless style doesn't work over tights. I need me a work dress.

Back in the day, women had housework dresses, but they were a little too light duty. Sewing one up in denim would basically create a lab coat, and I hate to be encumbered by sleeves. I'm thinking more halter dress than coat.

Back to the drawing board. I need big front and side pocket-compartments for the brushes, Xacto knife, painting rags, latex gloves, hair clip, micro computer/stereo system and some sort of accommodation for earbuds to enable hands-free operation of said iPhone.  I was following my instincts, obeying my gut, but this was all starting to sound a little familiar. I was conjuring up the maximum-convenience garment version of The Homer.

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Like all enduring design, function trumps form, and it takes a lot of mulling to simplify that form. I separated the 'must haves' from the 'nice to haves' and finally settled on sewing up a durable grey denim wrap dress, for ease of movement, with right-side tool/communication pockets.

My beta version is now encrusted with more than a year's worth of paint and gesso so it's a good time to roll out Work Dress 2.0. I still like the wrap design but I can see the top section should pull over the head apron-style so I can use that upper front real-estate for slim pockets for the pointy tools that don't sit pretty in side pockets when I'm sitting. Oh yes, and it needs to be made out of old jeans, pockets and all.

I may be taking orders for the Work Dress by next year, or not taking any orders on what is appropriate daywear.
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The beta version of the workers' wrap dress.
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Earbuds buttonhole above the side back pocket: check.
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Keeping Our Eyes on our work while cranes Swing overhead

8/29/2013

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They say some of the happiest people in the world live in the most precarious of circumstances. One theory says the self-reported happiness of these people is related to the fact that they live in the moment because a shaky future is too much to bear. 

This is how I feel about my studio. Content, fortunate — for the time being. I suffer from no desire to change up the configuration or make improvements. I don't even concern myself with the mouldering drywall or occasional mouse-sighting because I know that this could all be gone in a month's notice. The forest of cranes surrounding my studio neighbourhood of East 2nd Avenue and Main are a constant reminder of that. 
PictureThe skyline looking south up Main has changed dramatically since this photo was snapped in March.
It's all so precarious, I feel a small leap of joy every time I am not greeted by an eviction notice taped to my studio door. The inevitable redevelopment of the property that my squalid building sits on keeps me on my toes. 

There is no time to procrastinate at the studio; there is work to be done before the backhoe shows up and knocks down the cinderblock walls. And then where will I go? And what will become of my two artist studio-mates, the several ceramic artists in the three studios down the hall, the special effects guys who work in the film industry in two other studios, the musician and the fibre artist on either side of our shared space?

PictureVIVO Media Arts Centre GM Emma Hendrix, with cranes looming. (Rafal Gerszak photo)
This is a topic to be avoided when I meet for coffee with artist friends from nearby buildings, who are also trying to carve out an art practice in a race against time and property speculation, in what is easily the most expensive city in Canada to rent work space. We are already cheek-to-jowl, many forced to share their own workspace in a sort of split shift, or subletting for a few months to ease the financial burden. 

Everyone has a story about someone who's moved to the Sunshine Coast or her basement or Toronto, or who's had to switch from sculpture to jewelry-making due to a lack of space. We try not to dwell on the fact that a long commute from our apartments to a studio is a deal-breaker for many of us who decided to buy art materials instead of a car. We stay in the moment, stay on the topic of the work at hand, but even if we keep our head down, refrain from looking skyward, there are constant reminders. A Globe & Mail story this week by venerable reporter Frances Bula states that the VIVO Media Arts Centre property has been sold and it has to be out by May, after 20 years helping local artists and activists create video and music. We know that with every bit of news about high-clout galleries relocating next door, more controversy over highrise development, our days are numbered. 

PictureIn this corner: Happy to have space to crochet on a grand scale.
We are happy. For the moment.

PictureOn the other side of the studio: Space for large ink-on-paper play.
   

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Free store in Vancouver — finally!

7/19/2013

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PictureImage found at vancouverisawesome.com




I've been thinking for a long time that Vancouver needs a Free Store, just like the most popular 'retail' store on the Gulf Island of Lasqueti. And now there it is, inside the old vault of a former dim sum warehouse in the 800 block of East Hastings.

The East Van Free Store is a community/art project hosted by the Red Gate Collective, with the whole point being actual social engagement (as opposed to virtual a la craigslist) and it's getting some media attention (CBC radio interview with Collective member Julia here). 

PictureScore! Felt pens and new Moleskin.
It's also about to get more public attention after its imminent relocation to the storefront of this studio and performance space. At the time of this writing the old safe room is open Tuesdays from 4-10 pm but I think this thing could take off due to popular demand.  I dream of a chain of Free Stores, with the City offering grants to manage them, as a way to reduce landfill — that is, if the giant thrift store chain eight blocks east doesn't start squawking about unfair market advantage.

Because really, it's hard to go into retail battle with a free store, a potential paradise for everyone from hoarders who will find no barriers to bingeing on stuff to minimalists who need to purge to feel normal, and everyone in between — including makers in need of raw materials.


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Lasquetians have been enjoying the social hub that is the purpose-built Free Store (and recycling depot) for many years. It's almost impossible to not stop by, for the conversation and the conversation pieces often donated anonymously. The social engagement mostly happens on the sheltered porch lined with shelves full of books and whatnots as the clothing part of the store is only open two days a week.

A few gems — the truly useless, confounding items — make the Free Store Gallery, an educational/art feature of the islanders' community website. 

This is where keen-eyed local photographer Kristen Charleton posts her images of Free Store junk (her portrait of a donated rusty tin can of utensils is below) in a sort of lighthearted shame-the-dumper-donor series, evidence that even the truly undesirable has value.
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I've long relied on the Lasqueti Island Free Store as an important supply of raw materials for various projects.
A sampling of works made to comfort and discomfort:
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Free Store Flannel Quilt, 2003. Found cotton flannel shirts, fabrics.
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Rag rug, 2005. Found cotton fabrics, 40"W x 72"L
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Detail of 'Work II", 2010. Flannel work shirts on burlap, 32"W x 32"H
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Seismic Rug, 2011. Found mixed-fibre fabrics. 60" diameter.
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Ravages, 2013. Hand-made cotton doilies and mortar, approx. 18"
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Thinking outside our little boxes

4/19/2013

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I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who is aching to make a break from the indoors and take it all outside. Now that the weather is improving (well, theoretically at this writing) thoughts go to how to set up an outdoor setup for sketching, fabricating, painting or plotting our next moves or just playing with materials.

In my neck of the woods, where the studio is often someplace at home due to insanely prohibitive rental fees, personal outdoor space is more likely a balcony and one that's none too private either. 

It's a challenge to carve out a little outdoor sacred space in our vertical built environment. And even if we're allowed to create some delineation, on the Wet Coast there's no point hanging billowy curtains or installing anything that would sag and sog at the first spring shower. We're looking for something attractive yet weather-proof. 

These are the kinds of things I think about when I scan all those online image collections on Tumblr, Houzz and Pinterest. There's no shortage of ideas for ideal outdoor sanctuaries, but I like the ingenious solutions, the ones that make use of all the excess lying around, like the flip-flop bead curtain composed of plugs of the foam soles in Nairobi:
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This blogger composed a collage of flip-flops found on a Nairobi beach during a single morning walk, as well as the pic of the storefront with the fun foam curtain.
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It's the perfect case of necessity being the mother of invention, and an inspiration to make use of what's in over-abundance locally, relying on little or no tools in the making.
And since we're in the artwork-making world, we'd rather invest in supplies than decor anyway.

It reminds me of this little project I made a few years back, after I was searching for a way to deal with the ubiquitous plastic bags that are not accepted in my building's recycling bins. I shred the bags into roughly two-inch strips with a rotary cutter (scissors work fine too), tied them together into strands, then tied one end of each strand to each eye of a simple ceiling-mounted curtain rod. Voila!: a blossom-y sun-filtering retractable screen that to this day has withstood the elements, and grows as bags accumulate.






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