Welcome to the 309th installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists work amid the background sounds of Manhattan traffic and the Andean forest.
Want to take part? Check out our submission guidelines and share a bit about your studio with us through this form! All mediums and workspaces are welcome, including your home studio.
Karen Mainenti, Hudson Square, Manhattan
How long have you been working in this space?
Since January.
Describe an average day in your studio.
I usually arrive around 10am with a cup of flavored decaf coffee and make a short list — three priorities for the day and a few “nice-to-haves.” Because I also work as a freelance designer, my time here alternates between creating, researching, and taking the occasional Zoom call. I work in focused chunks, moving between collage, painting, and research — shifting gears keeps me engaged and lets ideas cross-pollinate between projects. I mostly work in silence, though sometimes I’ll play Apple Music for a change of pace.
How does the space affect your work?
Leaving my beloved studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn, was difficult, but I longed for windows and natural light. I found this Hudson Square space and painted the floors white — now it glows like a jewel box. I call it “Candyland” because it’s where I play and feel most myself, surrounded by my art and a pastel palette that runs through much of my work. It’s larger than my past studios, with dedicated spaces for painting, collaging, and thinking.
How do you interact with the environment outside your studio?
Though I miss the community of my old studio building, I’ve grown to love the independence of this space. My building is filled with musicians, engineers, and nonprofits rather than artists, but that separation gives me focus. I still stay close with my Brooklyn art circle and enjoy visiting friends’ openings around Tribeca, Chelsea, and the Lower East Side — a quick bike ride away.
What do you love about your studio?
The windows — and the way the light shifts throughout the day, bouncing off the building next door. It’s quiet and peaceful, except for the hum of traffic heading into the Holland Tunnel on Friday afternoons. Growing up in New Jersey, I dreamed of living in the city; that sound reminds me how lucky I am to work here.
What do you wish were different?
I wish I owned the space somehow. Affordable studios in New York can be fleeting, and I’ve had to relocate every few years as buildings change hands. This is the first move I made by choice, not necessity.
What is your favorite local museum?
MoMA. Growing up nearby, visiting was always a treat, and my first job out of college was as a library assistant there. It still feels like the pinnacle to me.
What is your favorite art material to work with?
Collage. I love how I can experiment with color and shape before committing — it’s a meditative process that helps me see how things come together.
Ric Dragon, San Bernardo, Colombia
How long have you been working in this space?
Three months! Just moved in!
Describe an average day in your studio.
I love to come straight to the studio around 6am every morning (we don’t have those big variations in day lengths here); upon which I fill a series a pages with ink drawings. From there, I might be working on a painting or taking a break and carving wood or making more drawings. I’m not one of those incessant mark-makers; I spend a great deal of time just looking. Both the sofa and the table covered with books are critical studio tools. They also make it comfortable for visitors, whom I welcome for some deep drawing sessions.
How does the space affect your work?
I’ve always lived in these large spaces so that the mind can expand into the space. It affects the painting. Oddly, this studio wasn’t designed for that perfect northern light but shifts throughout the day, which I find visually stimulating.
How do you interact with the environment outside your studio?
My studio is located next to the campus of the artist residency ArteSumapaz, as well as in an intentional community. I live in an ecosystem of communities, really — with the local interacting with the visiting international artists, alongside the longtime intentional community members. Immediately outside the front doors is an Andean forest, filled with a myriad of plants and birds, and the constant thrum of the nearby river.
What do you love about your studio?
It’s a space designed by myself for the practice — the daily practice — of breathing and making art, and it fulfills that perfectly.
What do you wish were different?
I still need to install track lights! And next year, I hope to be constructing the storage space annexed to this building.
What is your favorite local museum?
Fragmentos, the space created by Doris Salcedo. Does it count as a museum? Otherwise, the Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia (MAMU).
What is your favorite art material to work with?
Oil paint, including a medium combining stand oil, Venice turpentine, damar, and clove oil. Proustian rush-inducing.
