Monday, August 12, 2013

My happy place: Gavin Bishop

Gavin Bishop finds joy in his little studio surrounded by books and nick-nacks.
By Bronwyn Sell    

Herald on Sunday Aug 11, 2013   
 





Gavin Bishop finds joy in his little studio surrounded by books and nick-nacks. 
       
I spend most of my time in a little room downstairs in our house in Christchurch, surrounded by a menagerie of books, CDs, bottles of ink, bits of paper and pictures.
I know that "menagerie" is not the proper word to describe the stuff in my studio but I like to imagine I'm surrounded by things I've captured in the way a hunter might collect live specimens for a zoo. They give me comfort, entertainment and ideas. They keep me grounded.
My studio used to be an old kitchen. There was a new kitchen upstairs so the old one had to go to give me some working space.
Our builder put a long bench along one side of the little room, a sliding door into the garden on another wall, and a sink on the other.
On the fourth wall he installed a noticeboard so I could pin up notes and reminders of talks to U3A and Probus groups, as well as flight schedules for school visits and book festivals throughout New Zealand.
It is wonderful to have a place that you can just leave. Halfway through an illustration I can walk out - check the mail, make a sandwich or go for a stroll to grab a half-price cup of coffee on half-price pensioner day at the nearby mall, knowing it will all be there, untouched, when I get back.

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