Studio Meme: Essentials and Influences

Dayna started this one, inspired by Alphabetica (which I just ordered) and Gretchin carried it forward: Michael5000 responded in her comments, and now, I'm going to put in my two cents worth. My top ten art studio essentials and my ten major influences . . . in no particular order:

Note: this is tough for someone who works in encaustic, acrylic paint, watercolor, mixed media collage, printmaking and fiber, as well as making jewelry, so I started by looking at what always ends up out of the studio and in the living room because I need it to work on some little project while I watch TV. I also considered what I pack with me or pick up when I travel, and want to be able to make some art along the way.

It also goes without saying that a Refreshing Beverage of Choice (coffee with soy milk in the morning, diet coke or water with Emergen-C in the afternoon, and herbal detox tea in the evening), a Laptop with high-speed internet connection (for Googling, ordering fresh supplies, and downloading episodes of Project Runway) and Public Radio are essentials - no matter whether I'm in the studio, the office, the kitchen, or the car. Ok, I don't really Google while driving. At least not yet. Hello, voice-activated get-it-anywhere internet access.

Studio Essentials:

1. Black Sharpie
2. Exacto Knife and/or sharp scissors
3. Flat and Round medium paintbrushes
4. Gel Medium and/or Mod Podge
5. E6000 and/or Goop glue
6. Big flat surfaces to work on, including a cutting mat
7. Needle and embroidery floss
8. Big surfaces to embellish (paper, fiber or wood)
9. Golden Acrylic Paint or other water-based paints
10. Scrap fabric and scrap paper


Influences: (This includes just about anything I see, but most especially these things)

1. Egon Schiele
2. Eric Booth, The Everyday Work of Art
3. Textiles of all sorts (quilts, ikat, kimono, batik, weaving, embroidery, etc.)
4. Joseph Cornell
5. Traditional devotional and spiritual art (icons, mandalas, shrines, thankas, etc.)
6. fruits and vegetables
7. Costumes and the Fashion Industry, including glossy fashion magazines and Project Runway
8. The Xerox Machine
9. Travel (Garden of the Gods*, the Rockies, Nepal, Bali, Thailand, Route 66, and on and on)
10. Stewart Cubley and Process Painting

and because this one goes to 11 . . .
11. Outsider Art (see Raw Vision), feminism, the DIY Movement (see ReadyMade), word nerds, and other Geeks Who Make Things With Meaning

Tag - you're it. Shu-Ju? Ann?

*Garden of the Gods is a park in Colorado Springs, CO very close to where I went to college . . . I remember seeing those pinkish red and red-orange rocks, all covered with lichens in shades of gray-green and bright-green, contrasting so intensely and looking so beautiful . . . I'd always loved color, but I remember very consciously thinking about how those colors worked in nature and how I could get them to work in a painting.