Friday, March 13, 2009

Inspirational Work Spaces

Creating inspirational and sacred space for yourself oneself can be both uplifting and soothing to the soul. I also believe that having your creative tools within reach and easily accessible means you are more likely to actually use them on a regular basis. If the space you spend time in feels cluttered, uninspiring and perhaps just plain boring, I encourage you do take some to spruce up the space where you write, paint, sew, dream, blog and so on. Include some candles and images that speak to you. It doesn't have to cost anything either. Create your own art and hang it in your space or cut out images from old calendars or magazines and make a cool collage of images you enjoy.


The photo above is of a narrow wall space in the home office I share with my husband. This wall space is right above my desk. It includes two paintings by me. The large one with glowing golden wings is called We are all meant to shine! To the right of it is my Writer's Manifesto. I created this while at a writer's workshop with inspirational writer Sark last October. She even signed it. On the left is my Artist Manifesto. This was created at the gathering I facilitated in February called The Red Boa Playshop. The smaller box painting is called All the world needs is Love. Above it is a wonderful tin heart with wings that I found at Electric Rose Gallery in Healdsburg, California.

While I would love to have my very own playshop space for painting and writing I have decided that can wait for now. Instead I make the most of my space and include in my side of the office some of my favorite creative tools.

I love colored pens. I have containers of them real close by so that I can access them while I am sitting at my desk. Yet having them in cute little decorated pails means I can easily relocate them to another room if necessary. I also have some other odds and ends like glitter, stamps, a bell from the Netherlands and some favorite books occupying this space.

Here are more of my favorite books as well as journals and art catalogs.

\

Yet more books, the top is composed of language books from my days of being a French major. I also have some books from a semester in Spanish and a semester in Arabic. The second shelf holds books about children and parenting and basically some books that could lead one to becoming a parent (books about sex - oh my!)

Some more eye candy - a gorgeous field of sunflowers - my favorite flower.

Some mandalas I colored and taped in the window by my computer.

Another gorgeous miniature painting by my friend Susan Apolonio. She is so talented.

I am a word person too, so to the right of my screen is a magnetic word board. The image on my computer screen is one of Shiloh Sophia McCloud's amazing paintings. To view more of her art be sure to visit the Wisdom House Gallery on-line store here.

It is also important to me that the work space at my job also has some inspirational images. Here is a photo of my lone bulletin board that sits above my computer screen. Four favorite artists are featured. Shiloh Sophia McCloud, Melissa Harris, Mara Friedman and Sark.

No comments: