My Work Space/Also My Work Space

Image descriptions:

Image 1:
An illustration titled “My Work Space” of a clean and organized workspace with two L-shaped wall shelves, a desk with both a standing and a sitting side, photos on the wall, a desk chair, a dog sleeping on a dog bed on the floor, a laundry basket, and a side table with a plant. The illustration is diagramed with numbers and corresponding text to the side and at the bottom of the illustration:

1. [Illustration of a laptop] My laptop with only the draft of my novel open
2. [Illustration of a photo of a young girl taped to the desk] A school portrait of my mom when she was in middle school
3. [Illustration of a postcard affixed to desk] A frog postcard from a friend
4. [Illustration of a stack of books on top of the desk] Books on my grad school reading list like The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
5. [Illustration of a section of books on the bookshelf] Mostly read fiction like Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s Sabrina & Corina
6. [Illustration of a section of books on the bookshelf] Graphic novels & comics like My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris
7. [Illustration of a framed photo of a young girl in a softball uniform on the wall behind the desk] The babiest gay photo of me looking very serious playing softball
8. [Illustration of a section of books on the bookshelf] Books I read in grad school (Asian American Studies) like Lisa Lowe’s The Intimacies of Four Continents
9. [Illustration of a section of books on the bookshelf] More fiction like The Border of Paradise by Esmé Weijun Wang
10. [Illustration of a section of books on the bookshelf] Recently purchased books like The Secret Life of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
11. [Illustration of a section of books on the bookshelf] Non-Fiction books like Beyond Survival edited by Ejeris Dixon & Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
12. [Illustration of a felt pendant that says ‘Detail Oriented Meanie”] A felt pendant from a friend based on an Animal Crossing joke
13. [Illustration of a bear hook holding necklaces] A brass bear with his leg kicked up to hang things
14. [Illustration of a small brown dog sleeping in a dog bed] My dog Scout being an angel
15. [Illustration of a laundry basket] Laundry bin
16. [Illustration of 4 different tarot card decks] Tarot cards
17. [Illustration of a green Monstera plant] A thriving monstera plant
18. [Illustration of an iPad] iPad
19. [Illustration of a standing desk connected to a regular seated desk] Stand-in desk for my Sciatica Pain]

A * is next to the illustration of the L-shaped wall shelves with a corresponding note that reads: “My partner made these shelves & wanted to make sure it was noted. Aren’t they dreamy?”

Image 2:
An illustration titled “Also My Work Space” of a disorganized and messy workspace with two L-shaped wall shelves, a desk covered with multi-colored and multi-patterned laundry and other trash, a box on top of the laundry basket, an overflowing trashcan, laundry on the floor, and a dying monstera plant. The illustration is diagramed with numbers and corresponding text to the side and at the bottom of the illustration:

1. [Illustration of a seltzer can on top of the desk] An empty seltzer can. One of many, probably
2. [Illustration of a large brown box] A box full of replying that I still haven’t put outside in the recycling bin
3. [Illustration of a dying plant] The monstera might be dying a little bit.
4. [Illustration of clothes strewn over the desk chair] Clothes I just took off
5. [Illustration of a full trash can on the floor] Overflowing trash can
6. [Illustration of multi-colored and patterned laundry on top of the standing desk] Clean laundry from a few days ago that I still haven’t folded & put away. This might be a good time to admit that I don’t really use the standing desk
7. [Illustration of a sock on the floor] A sock
8. [Illustration of underwear on the floor next to the sleeping dog] Scout may look angelic, but this is a pair of underwear that she chewed the crotch of
9. [Illustration of a big red back stored underneath the desk] A bag full of yarn for future crochet projects underneath a maybe abandoned, unfinished crochet project
10. [Illustration of paper in an organizer on the desk] Bills
11. [Illustration of envelopes piled on the desk] Unopened mail, most of it is junk mail so I should put it in the box
12. [Illustration of a laptop on the desk] My laptop open to Twitter

making space: Laura Chow Reeve’s illustrated studio was originally published in ANMLY on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.