making space: Laura Chow Reeve’s illustrated studio

My Work Space/Also My Work Space

An animated .gif of one workspace. In one frame the workspace is clean and organized organized and in the other frame the same workspace is disorganized and messy.

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.

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