Figure out what's wrong with your studio.

My studio doesn't work.

I've got all the same "stuff" I had at the former studio but this arrangement of stuff in this version of my life doesn't suck me in to make work. It kind of repels me.

 The sun is out and I need a new flapper valve for the downstairs toilet , so I'm going to visit my favourite hardware store. Before I do, I'm going to diagnose the studio space. My expectation is that I'll need some thinking time between diagnosis and prescriptions (so that's a good time to run some errands) and that the hardware store will inspire me with a few eye hooks, shelf brackets, and pegboard thingummies while I'm out.

What's wrong with the studio? Let's begin with the fact that (1) I'm afraid to scrape the floor.

 (2) The light is crap. There are three-plus rooms, and the lighting is a different variation on crap in each of them. I'm sure it would be a lovely place to throw dinner parties. Very flattering. Very moody. I can't see what I'm working on, no matter where I work, and don't get me started about colour balance.

(3) I've set aside a lot of office space that just depresses me. I've closed both the businesses I wanted it for. I hope the Office Goddess isn't hurt when I ask for the spare key! Now, is the computer worth the cubic just for a music source?

(4) I don't have a wall to draw on. I've carefully set aside space for a drafting table which I've owned for years but never used. I left it flat so now it's covered in delicately balanced piles of shit. I've blocked off the only non-window non-bookshelf wall with a charming little desk instead of dedicating that wall space to the one way I love to draw: big pieces of paper taped directly onto the wall. Duh. Wonder where the charming little desk belongs? Elsewhere in the studio? Elsewhere in the house? Elsewhere?

(5) 2/3 of my stuff is in the basement and I can't tell yet if it's the right 2/3. I'm not sure how I'm going to decide that, or how high a priority it is to get some shelves into the basement so I can store and label what's down there.

I sorted the books by colour and I'm reasonably confident this is actually solving a problem rather than causing one. For as long as I've had a studio, I've had books in the studio. It's useless to file them library-style. Guests only ever find books by cluster or happenstance. I learn the clusters by habit anyway -- visual memory and all that. All I really need is a reliable way for guests to return books to their home clusters, and for me to spot misfiled books. Colour cues solve both problems. Right now, however, (6) about a third of the books are unfiled.

(7) The tables are a mess, and not in a good way. I keep setting up tables the way my students needed them in the former studio instead of in some way that works for me.

To distill this down to a teachable moment: Does your workspace work? I don't care how pretty it is, how organized it appears to be, or how it makes your peers swoon in bitter envy at the view, the space, the power tools & the glamour. Does it work for you?

Mine doesn't. It will. I'll get back to you with details and progress.