Kathleen Ryan - Art

During my MFA when I was given a private studio [4 walls and a door I could lock out the world] has changed my ideas of studio and what I need from a creative space.

In the process of having a private space for the first time as an artist notes, thoughts, and images that use to live inside my sketchbooks came pouring out on into the space. That is when I realized how much of a personal space my sketchbooks really were; always attached at my hip, it acted as extra storage for my brain, keeping track of important or random thoughts and creative information. I was protective of the contents of my sketchbooks because it was like flipping through my brain. In graduate school the studio walls almost immediately became my sketchbook, creating a brain space I could physically walk into and occupy. A studio space [whatever or where ever that may be] has come to mean a space I can be in my head [shutting out necessary elements of the outside world as needed].

Studio is a place with multiple purposes. It’s a place to think, to work, to research, to be alone, to discuss with others, to make notes, to play, to experiment, to create, to destroy, to plan, to clear my head, to clutter my head, to write, to draw, to read, to observe, to reflect.  Studio is a place to store all possible tangible inspiration, to keep my materials, notes, tools, and books.

Studio is a place that feels homey; comfortable, safe, familiar, intimate, introverted space, an infinite space. Quiet when I need peace and music when I need noise. Studio is also multiple locations, not just one place. I can “leave the studio” to get out, to gather ideas or inspiration but I’m always thinking, always observing and seeing. I take a sketchbook everywhere to record thoughts, ideas, conversations, things I see; it acts as a portable studio, a place to dump my thoughts before they are lost.