Today, I wandered through a bunch of artists’ studios during Red Hook Open Studios 2019. A lot of creative people doing some interesting work.

My problem is the same as every time I’m looking at art, and especially at its means of creation: it looks like so much fun, I want to do that! And that! And try that! But… time, space, money… And then I’d want to do a little of each, not repeat the same thing over and over. And of course I’d want everyone walking in to my studio to go “Oooh! I need that!”

I have no idea how all these artists can afford to do what they do. They can’t all be making a living at this, can they? But the intellectual fertility of these old warehouses, subdivided into multiple little studios all haphazardly built in next to each other is so appealing.

And then the writer part of my brain said, “Hmm, wouldn’t this be interesting if, instead of visual artists, these were all writers? Imagine walking in to each writer’s studio to see what he’s working on: pile of manuscript pages strewn across a table; red, blue, black, green ink nearly obscuring the neat type-written or computer-printed pages; computer screen open on a word processing program, or quill pen lying atop a lined yellow legal pad; tufts of torn-out hair on the floor, drops of blood sweat onto the screen.… And for the more successful writers, books hanging on the walls, maybe one standing on an easel.…

Anyway, if you’re interested in visiting the real artists, the Open Studios is on tomorrow, too.