How to Pick Plants for your Studio!
Having greenery around me as I work is incredibly important to me. Well, having greenery around me *all the time* is incredibly important to me really - but even more so when I’m working.
I use my plants for sketches, for neg/pos space studies, color inspiration and to provide little moments of visual peace from their spaces in the studio. For me, a space without plants is a space without a soul.
Choosing plants for my space came down to three things, light, humidity and general care requirements, and if you’re looking to add a few green friends to your space - these can help you too.
Light: Check out the lighting in your area, which direction do your windows face? No natural light? Better invest in a few grow lights. I have one southern facing window in the loft (no natural light on the bottom floor right now, so I’m not putting any plant friends down there) so I’ll congregate most of the plants in that area. If you aren’t sure about your light there are light meters you can purchase, or start with a low-light tolerant plant like a ZZ and see how they do.
Humidity: I have a cheap little meter to measure the humidity in my space as I have lost one too many prayer plants to significant drops. In the winter my studio is humid, in the summer it’s relatively dry with the AC running. Check the levels in your studio before getting a plant that requires high humidity. It’s not too hard to add a small humidifier - but that can be tricky in a studio space where there are materials that might not enjoy a lot of moisture in the air. For my purposes, all plants that require high humidity will live in my plant space at home where I can more fully control the levels.
General care: Does the plant require a lot of routine maintenance? I water by the finger-check method, so I check the plant friends about once a week in the summer and once every 2 in the winter. I can’t have something that will require constant moist soil as I may not be around with the right frequency to keep it happy. I also don’t want something that will get super huge in the in this space. It’s still an art studio afterall, as much as I would love a jungle I have to consider collectors dropping by and open studio nights – these might be hard to do if my guests have to dodge vines.
SO! The plants I went with for my space are:
ZZ plant: these are low light tolerant, drought tolerant and have been just so easy. They store water in their base, so if I’m out of the studio for a week they will be just fine without me.
Pothos: I love Pothos. I’ll say it again, I LOVE Pothos. They are so easy and come in so many beautiful varieties. Just remember the more white they exhibit, the more light they will need. If you have super low light try to steer towards the Jade (all over deep green) varieties. I have a neon in the studio currently, but I’m propping a marble queen and manjula from my collection at home to add to this space.
Hoyas! I currently have a rope and a carnosa queen in the studio, but will be watching these closely in the summer months as the humidity reacts to the airconditioner. I don’t keep the ac on while I’m away, so as long as it doesn’t drop too much these should be fine. If you want these plants to flower give them access to bright indirect light, otherwise just enjoy their waxy weird leaves.
Along the same lines, my monstera adansonii will also be under humidity-surveillence as the summer goes on. They tend to like more than 60% humidity, not sure if the studio will stay that way so if it looks to be getting too dry it will go back to my plant room at home.
I also have two varieties of sansevieria. Typically these are labeled as ‘low-light’ plants, but that doesn’t mean it needs low light. I have better luck with these in bright light, they grow so much stronger/taller. I have a whale fin and a laurentii and these will have no trouble with the shifty humidity thankfully.
Finally, I have a small string-of-hearts. I don’t usually go for succulents, but these are so great for negative/positive space studies with all the hanging stems. It would probably appreciate a little bit stronger light, but I’ll keep that in mind as I water and make sure not to saturate it.
And that’s it for the current collection. I just added these larger shelves to accommodate more in the future, but I’ll wait for the end-of-summer sales I think.
Featuring new work; ‘Conserve’ 18 x 24, acrylic on canvas. Inquire here for availability.
New Collages
If you’re following me on instagram, you are probably aware of the existence of some of these new collaged pieces - but I haven’t really talked about them much other than, “here it is”.
Right now I’m leaning hard into the preservation of certain moments and the destruction of others, and the building/layering/sculpting of something entirely new.
I’m entranced with the physicality of the process, the trial and error, the cutting of the paper, the choosing of pieces and discarding of others, the glue on literally everything, and the final reveal that is nothing like the original pieces and nothing like the plan I had set for it.
It is a truthful embodiment of the merging of planned and unplanned.
That’s partially because that is exactly how they came to be, and partially because I haven’t figured it out yet.
I haven’t listed these for sale just yet.
When I work on something new I like to share it in person first and talk to people who are interested in the work. I’ve been showing these in person during the Rostrum 312 gallery event in Chicago and the Vyshyvanka Day auction last month, but will be preparing them for sale on the purchase section of my site soon. I’m so excited to share these experiments with you.
Make sure you’re on the email list to find out when they go live.
Springtime Studio Notes
What does an artist do when she can’t find the right peel-and-stick wallpaper? She paints it of course. I began this project naively thinking I could wrap it up in one weekend.
(Cue obligatory Spongebob meme… 3 weeks later….)
It’s still not done. I took a little break as we had family in town and couldn’t have all the furniture in the middle of the room, but it’s been like 40 hours of dots. Everyone who comes in now says I should leave empty areas. That it makes it more of a mural and less of a painted wall paper. What do you think? Should I keep going?
We had our first beer (and wine for 3 of us) tasting event in the studio. I put all of my in-progress works up on the walls for the night to give everyone a look at the new work in it’s early stages. These are always fun nights for me, it’s a low pressure way to see what people think of these first layers. Sometimes this changes their direction, other times it just reinforces it. Either way, beer/wine and snacks are always a good combination when looking at art.
And thanks again to all who made it out for the Vyshavanka Day Art Auction on the 19th and StudioStudio and York. It was such a lovely day to celebrate and support Ukraine.
Check out this post for more photos from the day and for ways to donate if you missed the auction.
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And arguably the most important thing to happen this month….
I finally found my hammer.
Art Auction for Vyshyvanka Day
Today we celebrated Vyshyvanka Day at with an incredible party organized the The Hosting. I donated these 3 new collages for the art auction, 100% of the proceeds goes to humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
Sky and Wheat 1, 2, and 3 - inspired by the colors of the flag of Ukraine. 11 x 14, mixed media on paper and framed in maple.
<Link to bid has been removed, auction has ended!>
Installation by the ONE AND ONLY Passion Flower Sue.
So many beautiful blooms.
If you weren’t able to bid on a piece but still want to help check out Razom for Ukraine . They are a nonprofit dedicated to helping the people of Ukraine and offer many opportunities to give.
Rostrum 312 - Chicago Show
Oh hey Chicago - long time no see!
I was in Chicago for the weekend for the show with Rostrum 312 and wow, what a party.
Like, we broke the fire code party.
In my excitement to get there for the install I completely forgot about the time change from Michigan to Illinois. So. I showed up far, far too early. Which was fine. I found the venue, parked and got a bowl of rice and spicy avocado. (And wine)
After the install I ventured into downtown, the sky was full-on Bladerunner.
The following morning I had all to myself, so I popped into the Art Institute of Chicago to see an O’Keefe that has been on my heart since my husband has started his private pilot’s license training.
I’m a very nervous flyer and I’m working on re-aligning those pathways in my brain to something positive so I can go with him and not have a meltdown in turbulence. I’ll compile my thoughts on that elsewhere - but this painting is one I desperately wanted to see to start off this journey.
THE SHOW:
The show was a blast. I got to meet so many incredible people and have so many amazing conversations about the work, materials, and just art in general. I adore the Rostrum model of taking empty storefronts and converting them into gallery space for a time, and it was so thrilling to see the members of the community hop on the board and turn out in droves.
So much so, that we exceeded the fire code for allowable people in the gallery at one point and a line for entry had to form. And then it went down the block apparently.
The only downside was the amount of photos I was able to take - I ended up so busy that there were not many to share at the end. But I’ll have the memories though, and they are fantastic.
Thanks to all who showed up for the event or supported me from afar and huge thanks to the Rostrum312 team and those who took home work! If you purchased one of my pieces I’d love to see where it ends up hanging - send me a message <3
I’ll be back for sure, thanks again for the great time Chicago!