Welcome to the 269th installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists turn to their garden for inspiration and work as a duo on translating digital works into paint.
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.
exonemo (Kensuke Sembo and Yae Akaiwa), Dumbo, Brooklyn
How long have you been working in this space?
Since the beginning of 2024. We were the first artists selected for the NowHere Studio Program, a year-long rent-free program that gives Japanese artists a space to work, show, and connect with the community.
Describe an average day in your studio.
We usually start work slowly around noon, always bringing our dog Moka along. Her “job” is to sleep in the studio and occasionally bark at people outside. Right now, we’re experimenting with new materials and expressions for our solo exhibition next April at NowHere in Tribeca. Our work is intentionally subtle, blending elements from digital mediums to painting. Sometimes, we capture time-lapse videos of our production process and share them on Instagram — we love seeing the reactions! We don’t play music while programming, but at other times, we typically listen to something with a slower rhythm. After a while, we take Moka out for a walk. It’s a refreshing change of pace to stroll by the river, weaving through the tourists in Dumbo.
How does the space affect your work?
This studio is spacious enough to display some of our past works. Occasionally, we take time to study them closely and develop new ideas. It’s helpful to leave certain experimental pieces as they are, allowing fresh perspectives and unexpected inspirations to emerge over time.
How do you interact with the environment outside your studio?
The area hosts a large open studio event every year, with over 100 studios (located in our building and neighboring buildings) participating, as well as smaller ones held monthly. It’s inspiring to have strangers visit, share our work with them, and hear their feedback. These opportunities are invaluable since, during the intense focus of creating, we often lose touch with connecting to others.
What do you love about your studio?
Being surrounded by our work feels like being surrounded by children — it brings us immense joy, but it can also make our minds restless, much like the worries that come with caring for them.
What do you wish were different?
With such a large space, we would have loved to host events more casually over the past year. However, once we got absorbed in creating artwork, it became hard to make that happen, and finding the right balance proved challenging.
What is your favorite art material to work with?
We’ve worked with digital materials for so long that we feel very at home with them, appreciating how quickly they allow us to test our ideas. At the same time, there’s something deeply satisfying about slower, tactile materials like paint — stirring it, watching it dry, and observing how its color shifts over time feels grounding. We feel most at ease when we can position ourselves between these fast and slow mediums.
Vicki Teague-Cooper, Santa Fe, New Mexico
How long have you been working in this space?
Twenty years.
Describe an average day in your studio.
I usually go into my studio around noon, then work for several hours at a time. In the winter, I always take a thermal mug of tea for comfort and fortification! If I’m in the midst of working on a piece, I just dive right back into it. I sometimes listen to podcasts while working. If I’m in the conceptualizing phase, I usually listen to music while staring into space, look through some notes and sketches, and generally daydream until I get hold of a thread to follow. Sometimes I sit there for hours and nothing happens, so I leave to walk in my garden or some other completely unrelated activity so I can re-groove my brain.
How does the space affect your work?
My studio isn’t that large so I have to use the space efficiently — I can’t work really large but I’m fine with that since I like working small a lot.
How do you interact with the environment outside your studio?
My immediate environment is my garden which gives me such nourishment (in the warm months). My work is about the natural world so plants are a key resource. I live in Santa Fe, so there is a very rich art community here and I connect when I need that social aspect of art.
What do you love about your studio?
I love that it is where I live, so I don’t have to drive somewhere to work!
What do you wish were different?
I wish my studio were a lot bigger!
What is your favorite art material to work with?
Oil paint is my driving force, but I also work a lot with watercolor. I have also recently been working with paper clay to make a series of “star bowls.”
