Bright Spots & Collected Bits

This is a letter or it’s a notebook—today it’s my studio wall.

I collect little reminders, curiosities, projects in process, and inspirations that fuel my creative practice on a board in the corner of my studio. And because an art studio can be a state of mind and not just a physical space, the studio wall is also here for you and me.

• “Take the pencil, Hilma.”1 I don’t remember the first place I stumbled upon her work, but artist Hilma af Klint has captivated me from first glance, and last week at the library I stumbled upon Hilma af Klint: Visionary which includes gorgeous full-page spreads of her work, excerpts from her voluminous notebooks, and images from the New York Guggenheim Museum 2028 exhibition, Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future. It’s always the notebooks and sketchbooks that captivate me, and Hilma documented with a captivating prescience.

• My physical studio wall also spills over into online bookmarks and notes and snippets, and I’ve been reading Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte to help better organize it all. Notion is my place of choice right now, and I’m imagining a sort of creative repository, letting text and image mingle and expand.

• And on paper, I’m weaving in a commonplace diary amidst my bullet journal. Even my online readings can be captured here, taking the ethereal to something more tangible.

• A daily walking challenge amidst a very cold snap has been interesting, to say the least. We walk for another week, and I’ll be taking stock as January comes to an end.

• “I must have magic. I demand a life that I love.”2 Another person who speaks to me (and to many artists): Amie McNee on the way artists often go first, the ways we can draw attention, what we claim for ourselves.

• The Public Domain Image Archive is a visual treat, the very opposite of a doom scroll.

To your delight,

Nikkita

P.S. If you’re reading within Substack, I’m sharing some daily art in my notes here.