Have a seat

When we moved to this house the plan was to build a studio for me, out in the trees, near the creek. That was before the economy did its freefall and before our old house refused to sell. The studio idea is still alive, but not happening right away. So this little bedroom, farthest outpost in the house, is my studio space. It has been a really big mess for nearly a year now, though I've carved out a little space in which to work, surrounded by boxes and bags of all my stuff. Little by little I am getting organized and making it workable.

It is still painted the icky baby blue that every single room in this house was originally painted. It still has the wallpaper border of ocean life circling the ceiling. It still has the pink carpet with the blue ink stain in the dead center of it. I have learned to block all those things out and work here. I have added shelves and storage and located my work table under the wall lamp that was here when we moved in. I have spent hours and hours standing at this table, cutting, painting, printing, drawing. At the end of the day my feet hurt and my back is stiff. After all these months it finally occurred to me that if I could find a stool the right height I wouldn't have to stand. I'm a little slow I guess.

Yesterday I went out to IKEA and sat on all the stools they have. My table is counter height and just right for me to work at standing, so I figured the right height stool would have to put me at pretty close to my standing height. I found a wall at IKEA with a shelf that was right at the height of my shoulder and I dragged each stool over next to the shelf to sit and see if, sitting, my shoulder still came to the level of the shelf. No one seemed to notice, or if they did, they acted like my behavior was perfectly reasonable. I found the one that seemed perfect and you can see it in the photo above. (I got the 29" one, in white) Now I need to remember to actually sit on it.