Today's welcome Monday morning handmade space is that of miss Clare von Cupcake, the confectioner of sweet paintings in The Cake Shop and San Francisco resident. Clare lives and works in a one-room studio apartment- see how she makes it work!
{photo by J. Otto}
What do you create in this space?
i create paintings, drawing, collages, gocco prints and cards. 
Please describe what we see in the pictures a bit...
i live in a large one room studio so my art space takes up
about half of my apartment. i have nice, big painting table and a wall
covered with art supplies, sentimental trinkets and inspiring pictures
and books. i try to keep things organized, because i loathe
clutter...but clutter is part of the makin' stuff business, i guess.
i mostly paint, so paints and brushes come first. i also collage a lot so i have about 16 different jars/cans/bottles of adhesive. and i keep clipboards of interesting bits of paper i've found up on the walls (if i keep things in boxes i forget about them and they never get used).
the pieces on the floor are all works in progress. i always work on at least five pieces at a time. that way i can put something down and move on to something else when i'm stuck or when i need to let the paint dry. the bookshelf is not strictly arty, but it does contain several shoeboxes full of art supplies. i have no idea what's in them because boxes are where things go to disappear as far as i'm concerned. someday i hope to build something more accessible to store my supplies in.
the most inspiring part of my work space is my huge window
overlooking market street. i love the view, i love the light, i love
the round the clock busyness, i love the street lights and the sound
of passing trains...it's wonderful. it suits me perfectly.
How do you feel when you enter your "handmade space"?
since
i live in a one room studio, i experience a lot of feelings here. but
mostly i feel grateful to have such a nice space to work in. i've
lived in all kinds of places. i've done a lot of art crouched on the
floor next to my bed or in cold, poorly lit basement rooms. so this is
by far the best painting space i've ever had. and when i sit down to
paint, i usually feel pretty peaceful. or maybe not peaceful
exactly...because i get excited sometimes, too. it's more like
something inside me unwinds and my thinking becomes calmer and
clearer. i feel a balanced sense of ease and effort.
Thank you Clare, for sharing your beautiful space with us! The light is so pretty and inspiring!
You can keep up with miss cupcake on her blog and check out her latest offerings for sale in The Cake Shop!
