This is a guest post by Kelly Patton – share yours!
I started the life of a tiny dweller when I moved to the country in Northern California. I landed at a sweet community spot where other artists and farmers lived, and was thrilled at the idea of having my own space, no matter how tiny. It was common to find people living alternatively and exploring a range of creative and inexpensive spaces.
Many of these people were artists, and other creative types living comfortably in trailers, buses, cabins, attics, warehouses and barns. Over the course of 1 year I moved around the land from a veggie powered school bus, to a studio with an attic loft in a warehouse, and a small 8’x8′ shack. There was a community kitchen and bathroom available on the land, and the people shared these amenities. It was a very sweet and community interactive situation.
That experience gave me the notion that I could live with less furniture, and so I found ways to make my things more mobile in case I wanted to move my studio at any given opportunity. I learned more about what I could do without, and more about my basic needs in daily life.
As an artist, I tend to collect lots of little fascinating relics and natural objects as reference for my drawings. These objects don’t move everywhere with me, but have proven to be useful as they reflect the environment around me and appear in my paintings. In a special way, they are preserved in the artwork, so there is an ongoing acknowledgement that all stuff is replaceable and this helps me curb my long term hoarding. Please enjoy, learn more and re-share below. Thank you!
Kelly Patton the Traveling Artist and Tiny Dweller
Images © Kelly Patton
