The 298th installment of "A View From the Easel," a popular series featuring artists reflecting on their workspaces, showcases two distinct creative environments where artists pursue their passion for sculpture and mixed media art. This ongoing series invites artists from all mediums and locations, including home studios, to share insights about their creative spaces and daily practices.

Linda Yamada, working from her studio in Hamamatsu, Japan, has been creating art in the same multipurpose space for thirty-one years. Her workspace exemplifies the integration of art into daily life, as her work table simultaneously serves as her dining table and teaching table. "Living, teaching, and painting make way for each other, yet inevitably I feel each influencing the same, shared space," Yamada explains. The multifunctional nature of her space adds character through accumulated traces of daily activities - bits of colors, sauces, paints, stains, and pencil marks that blend together over time.

Yamada's creative routine lacks rigid structure, adapting to available time slots. She typically works from after lunch until evening when circumstances permit. Her process begins simply: clearing the table, gathering materials, filling a cup of tea, and sitting quietly while observing the outside world. The artist values quiet contemplation, preferring natural outdoor sounds that filter into her workspace over structured background noise.

The physical characteristics of Yamada's studio significantly influence her artistic output. Her space features abundant natural light and panoramic views through windows on multiple sides, allowing her to observe changing light patterns throughout the day and across seasons. "I find what I might want to paint in the light's shading moving around my space," she notes. The studio's openness provides views of sky, mountains, and seasonal visitors including birds, butterflies, and dragonflies, all of which inspire her work.

As a language teacher in her adopted country of Japan, Yamada maintains community connections through her professional work while keeping her creative practice more solitary. Although local art groups exist in her area, she has not connected with them due to time constraints and scheduling flexibility issues. Her preferred art materials include cardboard, colored pencils, acrylic paints, and old magazines for collages, with cardboard being her most favored medium.

In Maynard, Massachusetts, sculptor Donna Dodson has been working in her current studio space for ten years. Her daily routine begins at 9 AM, and she typically focuses on completing one sculpture from start to finish before moving to the next project. Dodson's creative process relies heavily on visual research, sourcing numerous images from the internet or photographing herself and her husband to develop sculptural compositions. She exclusively listens to music while working, as it provides background sound she can tune out when operating loud power tools.

Dodson's large studio space accommodates her ambitious sculptural projects, allowing her to position her carving bench in the center and bring in logs for seasoning and drying before use. The space handles her large-scale outdoor public art pieces, accommodating sculptures up to 10 feet high. For even larger projects like the monumental bamboo public art installations she creates with her husband Andy Moerlein under the "Myth Makers" series, they rent warehouse spaces with 30-foot-high ceilings.

The sculptor maintains active community involvement through numerous volunteer civic committees in her town, currently serving on the Affordable Housing Trust. She regularly supports local art galleries and open studio events while traveling to major art centers including Boston, New York City, and Los Angeles to engage with broader art communities and maintain friendships within the field.

Dodson's studio holds deep personal significance through family connections to her craft. Her woodcarving bench once belonged to her grandfather, who used it for butchering meat before passing it down to her. The same grandfather purchased her first chainsaw and work apron, supporting her artistic career from its beginning. "I love all of those connections in my studio," Dodson reflects on these meaningful objects that link her current practice to family history.

While satisfied with her current workspace, Dodson wishes she lived closer to major urban centers like Los Angeles or New York City, where more vibrant and active art scenes could provide additional creative stimulation. Her favorite local cultural institutions include the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy, and the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, her alma mater. Wood remains her preferred artistic medium, particularly logs she discovers or receives as gifts from friends and family members.

The "A View From the Easel" series continues to accept submissions from artists interested in sharing their workspace experiences, welcoming creators from all mediums and studio configurations to contribute their perspectives on how physical environment influences artistic practice.