I’m a documentary photographer, and have been documenting tables for a few years now, without realizing that one day I’d have my own worktable where I could sit for hours and draw whatever comes to mind. 

Drawing takes time and patience, just the opposite of photography, yet something about it keeps drawing me in, pun intended:) The desire to illustrate little bits of my interior reality came with a lost love; I’d design queer little postcards for her and post on social media, mostly to conquer my fear of showing something I wasn’t comfortable with (the end of a relationship and my inadequacy at capturing life with a colorful pen.) 

That was five years ago. A nomad at heart, having spent the better part of 2015-2018 on my friend’s couches in New York City, I came to value, beyond words, having shelter, food and a worktable. I’ve been living with my current partner for almost 2 years; we’re still working out the kinks of surviving in NYC as artists. However, when we finally signed the lease on our place I made sure to set aside a few hundred dollars to buy a marble top to place on my partner’s grandmother’s antique table. 

I knew I wanted a table that would bring joy and light and inspiration every single day. It’s quite a miracle, just sitting and tinkering with shapes and colors for many hours at a time, when photography is all I’ve known since I turned 20 (I’m 37 now.) I draw without any other purpose besides feeling home and at home with the objects I live with, I draw for daily joy.  
Website: https://danielagroza.com

Instagram: @bekindforreal

Note from the Editor:
This is the first in a series of stories by DART subscribers about how and where they spend their working hours during this phase of the COVID-19 Pademic. If you have a story, please send it in; the guidelines are simple:

Tell us how has your work and practice changed since last March, in 250-300 words Have you been doing more personal work than you usually do? Have you been engaging with other artists in online drawing meet-ups? How do you diffuse situations of too much togetherness or too much isolation? Send your text along with several horizontal photos of your workspace to choose from [one square detail is ok]. Please don’t feature any specific work; links to your social media/website will be included. First round deadline: Friday, January 29, Midnight anywhere.

AP37 Call For Entries is Open – With Reduced Entry Fees! American Photography 37 | Still / Here. Deadline: February 5, 2021. Enter here

Note from the Editor’s desk at the Home Office:

I will be teaching Present Yourself, offered by Sculptors Alliance, February 1-22 on Zoom. Thanks to funding by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, this 12-hour writing intensive is again FREE to NYC residents. Just scan the red QR code [left] for info, and the orange QR code [right] to register. Note: You don't have to be a sculptor to enroll for this course, which is open to emerging and mid-career artists hungry for new opportunities in the post-COVID art world.