Drawing on over one hundred studio visits and interviews with painters, this book offers a compelling exploration of the artist’s studio—not as a static workspace, but as a dynamic, relational, and generative site of learning, thinking, and becoming. Alison Shields shows that the studio can be understood in four interwoven ways: as place, as process, as material thinking, and as dialogue with the world.
As a place, it is where one dwells within subjective time and space, part of an active and interconnected ecosystem that, through artmaking, can transport us elsewhere. As a process, it is emergent, performative, generative, and always in a state of “not knowing”. As material thinking, it bridges mind and matter, thought and feeling, allowing intuition to roam within embodied and often messy environments. As dialogue with the world, it is relational, imaginative, and responsive to the ongoing texture of lived experience.
Rather than offering definitive conclusions, the book unfolds through a series of speculative propositions—drawn from the words and reflections of artists themselves—that illuminate the open-ended nature of creative processes. It invites not only artists but anyone curious about how we make, feel, and know to engage with the studio as a site of infinite possibility within an ever-changing ecology of practice.
236 pages | 48 color plates, 127 halftones | 6.69 x 9.61 | © 2026
IB - Artwork Scholarship: International Perspectives in Education
Art: Art--General Studies
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Introduction: Remain Curious (Studio as Mystery)
Section 1: Studio as Place: Dwell in Yellowness
- Grab that moment when you’re aesthetically shocked (Studio as mapping)
- Move the conversation even in a tiny way (Studio as ecosystem)
- Create a parallel world (Studio as portal)
Section 1 Conclusion: Dwell Within Time, Space and Conversation
Section 2: Studio as Process: Live Time
- Hold a wine glass as tight as you can without it breaking (Studio as performative)
- Take one small idea and see how fertile it can be (Studio as generative)
- Create problems that can’t be solved (Studio as not knowing)
Section 2 Conclusion: Embrace Curiosity as a Vital Force in Learning
Section 3: Studio as Material Thinking: Feel the Movement as Your Body Records It
- Bridge the gap between what you’re seeing and feeling (Studio as embodied)
- Make sense of the chaos that is happening (Studio as messy)
- Set up two situations so your mind has to travel between the two (Studio as collage)
Section 3 Conclusion: Create Space for Many Possible Trajectories
Section 4: Studio as Dialogue with the World: Embrace Art as a Vehicle to Understand Your Place in the World
- Change your relations to the world (Studio as unlearning)
- Threaten to fall into a mythological or fictional space (Studio as imaginative)
- Long for something other than what is (Studio as dialogue)
Section 4 Conclusion: Learn to Learn
Conclusion: Create a template for the imagination of the next person (Studio as never-ending)
References
Index of Artists