For many artists, the studio is more than a workspace. It is a refuge, a testing ground, and a living archive of ideas in motion. With this new Gallery MAR blog series, “Studio Stories” we’re opening the doors to the private environments where our artists create, inviting readers to step inside the spaces that quietly shape the work they come to love on the walls of the gallery.

We’re honored to begin the series with America Martin, whose exhibition “Celebration” opens at Gallery MAR on January 2nd. America’s Los Angeles studio, aptly named The Ark, mirrors the depth, humor, and emotional range found throughout her practice. In the conversation below, she reflects on the space itself, how it has evolved alongside her life and work, and why having room to dream, spill, fail, and begin again remains essential to her creative process.

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Gallery MAR: Could you share a brief description of your studio — where it’s located, what it looks like, and how the space is arranged for the way you work?

America Martin: My studio is named “The Ark.” It has kept me aloft — it reminds me to breathe when I forget to. It’s a 1980 ten-thousand-square-foot Butler building in the heart of Silver Lake, Los Angeles — walking distance to my house. Its scale allows inspiration to bloom. It has old opaque skylights that cover most of the ceiling, which let in such a round tone of light it feels as if it hugs you. It has every art book I’ve collected since I was nine. They sit there on the shelves like friends on bleachers saying, “Pssst — hey, keep moving, girl. Don’t stall out. Come peek in here and see what I did with marble! And then get on with it, you silly thing.”

On the flip side, it’s terribly cold in the winter and ridiculously hot in the summer. As with any dramatic artist, the highs and lows are on constant rotation. But I adore this space, for I’m able to have a place to leave the silliness of being an artist with so many feelings — and go be a mom and wife and play human, with all those comforts one also loves and frowns at.

Gallery MAR: What makes your studio space uniquely yours? Are there particular tools, objects, or features that feel essential to your creative process?

America Martin: Things are organized, but wildly so. Everywhere you look there are art experiments — tried and failed, or tried and made again. I’m constantly entertaining new mediums or materials, moving things around, utilizing the space in different ways. But still, there is an oversized map of Florence, my favorite city. There are my green plant friends, who love the soft light and grow in quite proud ways — up, up. The incense I burn. The hundreds of sketches in stacks. The quotes I have pinned around. The enormous child ring at the center of my studio, where I used to put my baby to play while I painted, then come back to nurse her. Now she is almost three going on five, and so that ring will probably hold our new little beagle pup coming this Christmas. Constant changes, my oh my.

 

“Artists need space. Their ideas are like plants; they need room to grow. And if they’re given that space, it’s good medicine.”

– America Martin

 

Gallery MAR: How has your studio evolved over time? I’d love to hear about any shifts in layout, materials, or atmosphere as your practice has grown.

America Martin: This studio has changed so much. I used to have art shows for artist friends — painters, photographers — clearing out the space with clean white walls, considering benches, the works. I threw a Christmas play series where writers wrote and cast fifteen-minute original plays. I had dance parties, wedding receptions. I ran my own frame shop. I shared the space with partners and friends I’ve supported over the years.

But the more I dream, the more ideas I have — and then I must try them — so the more space I need. Now the studio is very much a solo America Martin planet in orbit. Yet I still share part of it with my husband, as it’s his wood workshop and he builds boxes for my paintings.

Gallery MAR: In what ways does the space inspire you or influence the work you create? Is there something about its light, energy, or environment that helps spark your ideas?

America Martin: The ability to create large-scale works. The ability to not clean up and instead continue an idea to the end. To spill and be a total mess monster while in create mode — these things work for me, the way I tend to work. The fact that I have many different walls means I can move between pieces, following the muse’s thread, then come back when the first piece is dry. These ways of working I’ve discovered through the luxury of having a large solo space.

The process of making art is a strange one, for it seems it is always different — and yet it baffles me and surprises me continuously. So I’m constantly not surprised that I’m surprised, if that makes any sense. And I’m always quite bent out of shape about it. But then I work like a basset hound — I will outrun and outwork the process.

Gallery MAR: Why is having a dedicated creative space important to you as an artist? What does it allow you to access, explore, or express that you might not otherwise?

America Martin: I think having a separate space is oh so necessary. I’ve had every kind of studio space over almost two decades: from a hallway in a building I used to work in after everyone went home (I kept that very tidy), to a long wall in a kitchen, to several garages with tremendous termites or mice, to the tent I worked in this summer in Maine.

 

“People can feel if a bunch of love has been created in a place.”

– America Martin

 

All in all, I think artists need a space of their own. A place they can go into and shut a door or a curtain away from other eyes. For it’s when you can reimagine how things are — without any discussions or regular conversations — that art starts to get made. Artists need space. Their ideas are like plants; they need room to grow. And if they’re given that space, it’s good medicine.

Gallery MAR: What are your favorite moments in the studio? This could be a daily ritual, a time of day, or a part of the process when the space feels most alive.

America Martin: Oh gosh, these are great questions — you are definitely an artist yourself to ask such a thing. I love when I get there early in the morning and when I’m there late, late at night. Basically when the world still seems asleep or not plugged in. When I don’t feel the hum of “supposed to”s. And I get to kind of let my elbows hang, listening very loudly to either some artist’s music or literature. And I say, “Hey TIME, adiós.” And time listens and ducks away for a while.

And I go around like a sleepy Muhammad Ali butterfly, from piece to piece, finding the rhythm, the hum — imagining I’m in the ring, knocking each piece around, looking for a sleeper hit. Then on to the next.

Gallery MAR: Is there anything about your studio that visitors might find surprising or especially meaningful?

America Martin: People have said, “Oh, it feels so good in here.” I feel this is the ultimate compliment — because the studio is where I feel good. The idea that somehow untouchable and unseen feelings are shareable is so wonderful.

Now, this may sound pretty rooty-tooty, so excuse me, but it reminds me that when you create things, that thing exists — and it also changes the space. People are insightful and clever and sensitive. They can feel if a bunch of love has been created in a place. And so it’s important to make good things and be good. And if we’re lucky enough to share what we love with others — well, that’s just cherries on cream.

 

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We would like to extend a special thank you to America Martin for her time and insights, especially in light of her upcoming exhibition, “Celebration,” opening at Gallery MAR on January 2nd.

Interviewed by Veronica Vale

Tags: America Martin, America Martin Art, art studio, Artist studio, Gallery MAR artist, Gallery MAR exhibition, LA Artist, Mixed Media Art, Studio Stories
Posted in Gallery News