Sustaining a creative and inspiring living space can be really difficult, especially if you live with other people. For the longest time my home and studio have existed in two different worlds. One world allowed for total self-expression, inspiring new ideas and ultimately new bodies of work. While the other suffered from preconceived ideas of home and various gender roles issues- always feeling ridged and under stimulating. Previous attempts to blend both worlds have been unsuccessful.
I have spent the past seven years or so, investigating ideas of space and the identities within spaces. One exercise in exploring space was to read (almost seven times now) “Poetics of Space” by Gaston Bachelard- a collection of ideas addressing the psychodynamics of space. With Foreword by John Stilgoe, Bachelard is said to challenge our understanding of the spaces we dwell. “Beyond his startling, unsettling illuminations of criminal cellars and raisin smelling cabinets, his insistence that people need houses in order to dream, in order to imagine, remain one of the most unnerving, most convincing arguments in western philosophy. “
We do need homes to further personal growth and continue to dream…The home must house both worlds (our passions and daily expressions) but also must lend it’s self to familiarity. With a new found sense of free time, I am working on making a union between studio and home. The hope within the new space is to sleep, make, do, think, write, read, cook, and share.
I just discovered (!) your website and although we’ve never met, I know of you and your work. I just love this post, as it is an idea I grapple with continuously as well. Also, Poetics of Space is a book I love and read in grad school; it might easily be my favorite bibliographical resource in my thesis on the architecture of American funeral homes. Anyhow, I also write a blog and thought you might be interested. Doin’ It All, Idaho Style: http://www.idaho-style.blogspot.com. Warmly, Amy Pence-Brown