Creative Spaces: A Garrett of Your Own

If you're going to have a serious (or playful) artistic practice, you need a space of your own. This is true even if your creative spells are limited to one or two hours a week, whenever you can get a day off work. This is so important that once you rope off a corner of your own, you'll wonder how you got along without it.

Nearly 20 years ago my family and I were living in a single-wide mobile home on a tiny lot. It was way too small for four-sometimes-five people but it was ours for the time being. My "office" was a small drafter's style desk and a stool in the corner of the kitchen. There were no walls. Half the time I'd sit down to work only to discover that a family member had "borrowed" certain supplies or spilled something on a manuscript. I didn't get much done during our four years there.

When we moved into our current house I got half a room for my office - my husband got the other half - and discovered that if we used a portable screen, we each had a reasonable amount of privacy. For the first time in years I was able to finish projects, partly because I didn't have to pack away partially finished work at the end of each day. It was safe on my desk.

This sense of safety is critical to creative success. You need a place, no matter how small, where you can be free to rough out ideas that aren't ready for the glaring light of public exposure yet, and where you can leave half-finished projects out without fear of others messing things up.

A tiny desk in the middle of a common room isn't ideal. If you live in a shoebox, try to find an empty corner, or empty a full corner of its junk. With a folding screen you can create an ersatz wall. This wall won't shut out noise but it will make a sort of psychological barrier to interruptions.

It's just as important to teach family members or roommates that when you're behind this wall, you're at work. In some households this can be a real struggle - enough to merit an article of its own. Claiming your own space is the first step.