In my studio: permission to play

You know those people who need milk, go grocery shopping, and come back with… milk?! Are you that type of person? I’m not. If I’m already at the store, I’ll wander around, maybe there’s something else I might need? I’ll try to remember if there was a recipe I was planning on trying, I’ll have a look at all those chocolates and magazines near the cashier. Know what I mean?

It’s the same process when I step into my studio. I never have a plan. I go in there looking for adventure! When I go in, I’ll usually start by moving things around, pulling out a journal, maybe some paper and paint, I’ll start moving my hands, wandering off, letting myself think, remember, get into the zone, and when I’m there, I’ll usually know what to do.

Recently, I’ve started working in magazines, as my journals. Have you noticed that trend, where every magazine has now become a journal you can work in? Somerset Studio now has some pages you can cut and work in, and so do many others. So I decided to start using up old magazines I has around, and it works wonderfully, because they’re so full of inspiration, color, and words, and it’s so much fun to fill them with my own words, collage, thoughts, etc.

And it’s not only magazines I’ve started using up, but also my supplies. I hoard quite a bit, and now my challenge is to really use everything up. So a few days ago I stepped into the studio, opened up my current journal which happens to be a beautiful In Her Studio magazine, and decided to use up my Tim Holtz pack of paper dolls, which I’ve had for too long.

The magazine is so full of gorgeous studios and artists, I love reading it. So as I was leafing through it, I noticed all the rooms in there were empty. Each one of them had either an empty chair, or desk, so many places for the paper dolls to enter!

This is one page of the magazine before I started working in it and adding my own people.

And this is what it looks like after I added the paper dolls. I love how the title gets a whole new meaning with these new people. Also, because so many of the studios have a vintage look and feel to them, the black and white people fit in so perfectly.

I had so much fun giving each paper doll its own space! Some looked like ghosts playing around in these studios.

Others didn’t look so happy…

But I had so much fun just filling up the whole magazine with new life, new stories, all imagined by me.

Have you ever used a magazine this way? I’d love to hear about it! I’m also thinking of doing a video of my magazine, because there’s much much more than the photos I uploaded here. Let me know if you think it would be interesting, and I’ll make one. Thanks for reading!