February 23, 2025
Good morning everyone! Here is another set of Studio Notes. These last couple weeks have been a bit of an in-between time as I’m working a lot on my computer admin-type tasks, applying to art markets in the spring and summer, and working on getting my studio ready to use! It’s been very cold here and snowed quite a bit, which I just absolutely love. Today, though, it is pretty warm outside and the snow only lingers in the shadows, unfortunately. Last week, I set up my outdoor booth when it was 3 degrees Farhenheit outside! It was very cold, but I needed the photos to apply to an art show before the deadline.
Today, I start out with some thoughts on combining my creative work of written and visual mediums. Writing is a huge part of my life, and I want to find a way to combine it with my painting practice.
Next, I talk about some exciting updates on Colt Island Works’ online presence—specifically, updates to my website and trying out Pinterest to grow my reach.
Finally, I share an exciting update on my studio space, then a quick run down of the media I’ve been listening to and reading these last couple weeks!
So settle in on this chilly Sunday morning (or whenever you’re reading this) and take your time reading through these Studio Notes!
When I was in New York, I bought a copy of Mary Oliver’s collection Dream Work. I’ve read many of her collections throughout the last few years. There is something about the way she connects how we feel inside to little details in nature that always inspires me. Between reading this book and another that is one of my very favorites, Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith, I have felt very inspired by words. Specifically, written words as a form of art.
I’ve always been a reader and a writer. I’ve wanted to be a writer for far longer than I’ve wanted to be a painter, interestingly enough. And even though I’ve been working hard towards working as a professional artist, I find myself drawn back to writing.
Now, I have been a novel writer since I was 13 years old and wrote my first manuscript. And I’ve written a great many since. I’m querying one of my novels to agents right now, a very slow-moving process.
However, it wasn’t until I was taking classes for my creative writing minor in college that I discovered my love for poetry. I always thought poetry just wasn’t for me, but in truth, I think poetry can be for anyone. If you think not, perhaps it is just because you haven’t found your right kind of poetry yet.
I love how poetry acts as though words are paint, and the page is the canvas, and there is a different kind of freedom towards painting with words. As I’ve been reading Dream Work, I’ve felt drawn to read some of my old poems from my college workshops, and I’ve even felt compelled to scratch out starts to new poems in my journal. And I realized that I’ve missed it.
I’ve heard so many times that to succeed in a creative space, you need to have a niche. While this can certainly be debatable, I can definitely see the draw to that idea. And I want to revisit the idea of combining written and visual mediums in my work.
I’ve done this in the past, but in a way that emphasizes the visual medium of paint. In many of my paintings, I start with writing a poem or snippets of my poetry, before painting over it. While I love this and feel it sets an intention for the painting, in the end the viewer cannot read those words. Something about poetry feels more vulnerable to me, and I tend to shy away from that.
Now, for a long time I’ve had this idea of publishing a chapbook of poems and paintings, and I find myself thinking about this a lot. I don’t think I want to traditionally publish this: if I decide to pursue this project, I want to have complete creative freedom to make it true to itself, without worrying too much about marketability or making it sellable. And now, by writing it here and sending it to you, I feel that it gives this idea substance and holds me more accountable.
For a shorter-term goal, I will be creating and offering a new product in my shop launch next Saturday, March 1. I will call them “Poetry Postcard Prints”, and have on the front a print of a painting, and on the back my own poem that inspired the painting. And since they will be postcard sized, they will be offered at a more affordable price point.
Now, in creating this chapbook and these postcards, I’ve hopefully found a way that I can combine my two loves into a format that you can hold in your hands and see juxtaposed next to one another, as equals.
I have been working behind the scenes for the last month or so to give my website a bit of a revamp. I have now designed a page for my Studio Notes! You can read them as they were published, week by week, or you can read through the different categories. I so far have three categories: Creative Process, Lifestyle and Travel, and Business and Productivity.
I am very excited to have this backlog up on my site, so that interested people can now take a look through what my process is like and learn a bit more about me. Of course, I will still send out Studio Notes through my mailing list, but I will also be posting them on my site!
To go along with this, I also redid the colors on the website so that it aligns more with my branding. The new colors feel a bit more similar to my paintings now, which I love! I am so excited to have this ready for my big shop launch on March 1st!
I have been hearing lately about how effective Pinterest is as a platform to get more eyes on your website. In comparison to a platform like Instagram, Pinterest redirects people directly to your website.
I’m doing a lot of research into how best to curate a Pinterest account, and I will be working on setting that up fully in the next week. With my Studio Notes now on my website, I can’t wait to start directing traffic to them through new pins on Pinterest.
I don’t know if you have or use Pinterest, but if you do go ahead and give me a follow over there!
Visit my new Pinterest Account!
It has finally happened! I am finishing up the final touches to get my studio ready to paint in this weekend. Which means that I can start painting again this week! I am so incredibly excited. While I’ve been out of the studio, I’ve worked a lot at curating creative ideas, sketches, and I even have a commission ready to start. I am very ready to start.
What will I work on first? Well, I have a a few larger blank canvases. I really want to start a landscape inspired by our wintry trees—outside my house last week, the setting sun was glowing orange on the snow, and in the shadows of the tree trunks was the deepest blue. I love playing with complementary colors in my paintings, and it has been a long time since I’ve explored blues and oranges. So I definitely want to explore this idea further in a larger landscape painting.
I also want to start another painting that I experiment with. Throughout rereading The Creative Act, I’ve found particular inspiration from the recurring theme of the importance of experiment and play in your creative work. To not let something that has worked out well in the past dictate your current and future work, simply because it’s worked before. I cannot wait to branch out and experiment. I have ideas written down, and I also want to follow my intuition and simply have fun.
Now, I’ve finished painting the walls, so now I need to move all my supplies in. But that hopefully won’t take too long, and then I can dive headfirst into my creative process once more.
This is what I’ve been listening to as I create in my sketchbook and journals, as well as painting the walls and prepping my studio space.
The Laura Horn Art Podcast
The Mel Robbins podcast
Zach Bryan’s EP Quiet, Heavy Dreams
Rereading The Creative Act with my friend
Mary Oliver’s poetry collection Dream Work
And that’s a wrap! I cannot wait till next Studio Notes, after two weeks back creating in the studio—I’m sure we’ll have a lot to catch up on. Thank you so much for reading through these notes, and please reach out if you have any thoughts on what I’m talking about here!
Keep an eye out next Saturday for my shop launch! I will be offering 11”x17” prints for the very first time, as well as many new prints, cards, stickers and of course the poetry postcard prints. Don’t forget to give my Pinterest a follow if you use the platform!
Other than that, I think that’s it! Thank you for reading and your support, and I hope you have a wonderful, creative week ahead of you.
~Anna
