“An Artist’s Perspective from the Easel”

Welcome to the 328th installment of A View From the Easel, where artists delve into their creative spaces and practices. This week, we explore how artists craft unique alphabets and ponder the universe’s collapse.

In Columbia, Maryland, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Lusmerlin Lantigua creates art nurtured by her environment. Her studio, open to a garden, blends nature’s rhythms into her work. With a flexible studio allowing transformation, she has undertaken projects like “The Big Rip,” a 28-foot painting exploring cosmic collapse. Her connection to community and artistic circles across various cities fuels her practice. Lantigua appreciates quiet and space but sometimes wishes for proximity to a city’s vibrant art scene.

In Brooklyn, New York, another artist has found solace in a small, strategic studio space, joining a thriving arts community in Gowanus. Participating in events like the Gowanus Open Studios connects her with a wider artistic network. Her studio transforms with the ebb and flow of projects, reflecting the urgency of creation. During the pandemic, finding a studio became vital to her artistic identity. Her fictional alphabet, born in 2017, serves as a material to explore identity and ancestry, with ambitions to continue expanding her medium’s potential.

Both artists demonstrate the interplay between personal creativity and their environments, whether through a connection with nature or a bustling urban community. Their studios are sanctuaries for exploration, growth, and reflection on universal themes.