Lara Saget has a studio in Brooklyn, and it comes with a freight elevator, a rock room, and a mini trampoline. She also has a glass section, a painting section, a miscellaneous area for large inflatable trees, and a spiritual soundtrack. Her latest installment of A View From the Easel, a series where artists talk about their workspaces, is a reminder that a studio is not just where you make art — it’s where your whole life happens.
Saget has been working professionally since 2013, and she moved into her current studio in 2018. The space was built from scratch by her and five classmates who moved in together right out of grad school at NYU. They constructed walls, storage, a gallery, and a kitchen themselves. Over the last eight years, people left and Saget took over their spaces, and she now occupies about two-thirds of the building.
Starting the Day
A typical day in Saget’s studio starts with meditation and exercise. She arrives by late morning and works on multiple projects at once, moving between her painting area, her glass section, her rock room, and the wild card zone. She keeps music on most of the time, though she has traded her podcast habit for satsang recordings from her spiritual teacher.
The physical labor gets a different soundtrack. When she lifts heavy machinery or rocks, she switches to “pump up music.” The studio is also filled with artists, which she calls “refreshing.” She has been in New York for almost 20 years.
Safety First
Saget is grateful for proper protective equipment. She remembers her early days in her 20s, when she mixed parts A and B of resin in her bedroom. That was almost 20 years ago. She says she can’t put into words how grateful she is to be a working artist in New York with a studio and proper PPE.
The freight elevator is the reason she can work with some of her heavier materials. It can carry thousands of pounds, which is important because some of her rocks, stones, and glass need that weight capacity. Saget says the space is integral to her work, and it makes her work possible.
The Rock Room
The rock room is the thing Saget loves most about her studio. She moved in with five classmates right out of grad school at NYU, and she built out her own room for rocks, stones, and ancient relics that she later includes in her work. She says it is her childhood dream come true.
Her studio is also a social space. She works in glass, which she calls collaborative — it requires multiple artists to work simultaneously. Through that work, she has had the opportunity to work with incredibly skilled glass artists. She also works in stone, glass, metal, and other mediums.
Each time she begins working with something new, she gets to learn with an artist who is dedicated to that material. She has met incredible artists through these new material explorations, and they have become longtime friends as the years go by.
Glass and Other Materials
Saget’s favorite art material is glass. She describes it as an amorphous solid or liquid depending on how you think about it, and she loves that state change is inherent in its composition. She says glass is alive in a sense.
She also has a mini trampoline that she keeps in her studio. It’s a reminder to stay playful, she says.
The Size of It
Saget wishes her studio were bigger. She calls it the classic New York story. But she is grateful for the size it is now, and she accepts that the space has limitations even as she dreams of more room.
Her favorite local museum is The Met. She loves ancient Egyptian and Hellenistic sculpture. She loves wandering the halls right when they open and close.
The Weekly Routine
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| Early morning | Meditation, exercise |
| Late morning | Arrive at studio |
| Throughout the day | Multiple projects: painting, glass, rocks, miscellaneous |
| While painting | Satsang or spiritual instruction mp3s |
| Physical labor | Pump up music |
Saget’s studio is a place where she can work large scale, stay playful, and stay safe. It is a place where she can learn with artists who are dedicated to the materials she is using. It is a place where she can build out her own room for rocks, stones, and ancient relics that she later includes in her work.
It is a place where she can admit that she used to mix resin in her bedroom. It is a place where she can be grateful for proper PPE. It is a place where she can say that the freight elevator is the reason she can work with heavier materials.
The studio is a reminder that a studio is not just where you make art — it is where your whole life happens. It is a place where you can move through a morning of meditation, a day of painting and lifting rocks, and an evening of finishing the day. It is a place where you can be grateful for the size it is now and still dream of a bigger one.
Saget’s story is a reminder that the space you work in shapes what you can make. She built her studio from the ground up, and she has filled it with the people and materials she loves. She says she can’t put into words how grateful she is to be a working artist in New York with a studio and proper PPE.
The studio is a dream made reality, and she is still living in it.
Source material: “A View From the Easel,” Hyperallergic.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.