_{Couch Convos: Tea with Angela}

By Zoe Wallace

In the middle of June this year, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Angela, corporate-employee-turned-small-business-owner. Over the course of just 8 months, she has watched her vision of an inclusive third space flourish. An awe-inspiring ideator, ceramicist, and serial hobbyist, Angela is using creativity to foster community in an age of unprecedented loneliness. The result of that is Drawing Room.

A home away from home, Drawing Room feels like your own living room. Shoes off and plush rugs, there’s a comfortable intimacy that is undeniable. Angela decorates from the heart, coloring the space with a vibrant homeyness just as she would her own home. Thought has been put into every detail, from the tasseled lamp shades to the wall of ducks left by passersby. As you walk through, you’re encouraged to interact with the space beyond crashing on a velvet blue chair and pulling out your laptop. Every corner of Drawing Room was designed to be a safe space to unleash your inner artist or open up to a new friend. Leave a piece of yourself in the book of notes, donate a page of doodles to the scrap bin, or invite someone to grab a game from the gold shelves just beside the wall of ceramics. 

During the day, cool, bright light filters through the lush leaves of friendly Monsteras, enlivening the fresh flowers blooming at each craft table. At night, ambient lighting warms the space with a spotlight always on the colorful Art Library, inviting you to take a dip into its paints or experiment with clay. Soft music drifts through the air and a warm cup of tea will have you curling up on one of the cushy vintage sofas.

Angela and I sat together on a sweltering day in New York City. Despite being on the 9th floor of a 16-story building, Drawing Room was a cool oasis away from the concrete heat. Through the windows, you could see the streets of Chelsea, crowded with fast-paced New Yorkers on their way from lunch and tourists saddled with suitcases to-and-fro Penn Station. Drawing Room is always a breath of fresh air for me. A much needed break from the hustle-and-bustle of the city. 

I happened across the space when I first moved to New York, in search of community myself. Hearing Angela speak passionately about her journey to Drawing Room was not only inspiring, but a much needed reminder as to why community and creation—including collective creativity—is necessary in a society hyper-focused on individual material success. 

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Zoe: In your own words, what is a third space?

Angela: A third place is a place that's not your home or work, but a third space outside of that where we spend a lot of our time and congregate. A place where you can connect with your friends and bump into people that you don't know and make new connections. To me, I think the defining characteristics of a third space are regularity and consistency. You can have tough conversations or share the latest on something that you're excited about in a consistent space where you feel comfortable and where there’s an undercurrent of familiar faces and a common thread. That recurring safe space is what builds really strong connections. 

Zoe: That’s beautiful. What are some traditional examples of third spaces?

Angela: Think about high school or college where you saw the same people all the time … those places served as third spaces. We do still have some third spaces today—libraries, cafes, and bars. People walk into their neighborhood cafe and they're like, “Oh, I know who's going to be behind the register. I know who's going to be making my coffee.” And you build a connection with that person, your conversations get longer, and you get invested in what's going on in their lives. These conversations may or may not be very deep, but there is this consistency present, which can provide a sense of community. The downside is that we’re often pressed for time in these spaces, or feel like we have to continue to make purchases to stick around. 

Zoe: Can you talk a bit more about why consistency is so important?

Angela: Consistency and repetition is how you build connection, deepen relationships, and build community where there’s a sense of belonging and support. I think when we dig deeper, these relationships are really important to our sense of self, personal fulfillment, and for many, the meaning of life. When everything is so digitized—these days you can order groceries online, you can order coffee online—we lose out on a lot of these interactions and opportunities to connect in the name of convenience. Intentionally fostering these human interactions and longer lasting threads are really important for our happiness.

Zoe: Why do you think people are especially being drawn to third spaces in today’s time?

Angela: We're spending an unprecedented number of hours on our devices like our phone, TV, and laptop which can feel very empty. I think as technology matures, people are adjusting to counteracting this impact. We also have a very productivity-focused and hyper-individualistic culture, but the pandemic shook things up and people have a different relationship with how they’re spending their time now. They’re asking, “What brings me fulfillment? What will make my life feel meaningful?” I see a huge wave of people looking to live more intentionally and foster deeper connections—this is demonstrated by the explosion of community and creative gatherings not only in NYC but across the world. We’re so well connected through the internet that we’re no longer limited to the traditional ways of connecting at school or work. We can find people that have similar interests and experiences that allow us to explore our passions and live our life in a way that feels truest to us. 

Zoe: I know that you worked in corporate before this, so I was wondering if you could tell us about your career journey and what brought you to creating this space?

Angela: I was always an extremely creative person. I just had creativity spilling out of me all the time and was always making things with my hands. My other passion is bringing people together. I was always hosting dinner parties and planning things for my friends. So it was natural to start hosting pottery workshops around my own dinner table.

For personal context, my parents are also small business owners and I grew up watching them become very successful on their own terms. That was always super inspiring and it lived in the back of my mind. I was in corporate tech for about eight years before starting Drawing Room, and I always felt that the space wasn’t built for people like me. I’ve tried many, many business ideas throughout the years, so when I saw this one was working, I decided to take the leap! I’m not going to lie, it was and is still terrifying! 

Zoe: What do you think makes Drawing Room different?

While living in NYC, I’ve been to a lot of creative spaces and taken a lot of workshops. There’s always been a lot of emphasis on the technical skill building, which makes sense because you’re taking a class, but I always felt it was a missed opportunity that there wasn’t some infrastructure for helping people connect at these places. From the beginning, Drawing Room has always been about utilizing both creativity and a shared curiosity for learning new things to build and strengthen connections within the community. So everything we do here is designed for both of those things. I think that makes every single gathering we host really meaningful. 

I also think there is something really special about it having started in my apartment. It all felt so organic and comfortable. I envisioned the space as an extension of my own living room—even to the extent of people still taking off their shoes when they come in and gathering around a big shared table like a dinner party. It causes a mindset shift and is a bit disarming, but then you can kick your feet up on the couch or even sit cross-legged at a table and strike up conversations with strangers. I think there's a level of intimacy in that, and we find people are very respectful of the space and treat it like a shared, community resource. 

Zoe: We've talked a lot about community in general, but I think it's also important that we talk about what community means to you.

Angela: To me, community is a feeling of connectedness and sharing; a source of inspiration and a place to give back. It's knowing that if something goes wrong, there are going to be people and resources that will support me. It's knowing you are not alone. Change can feel very daunting, scary, and isolating, yet it’s one of the few things we can count on. So having community is so critical to feeling grounded and like you don’t have to figure out everything alone. 

Zoe: Do you think creativity is something you have to be born with?

Angela: I think everyone is born with creativity! Creativity is not just visual arts. It can be simply problem solving, expressing oneself, or enjoying being alive. What you decide to cook for dinner, what you wear for the day, what you watch, what you listen to, how you process your emotions, how you connect with others—all of those are acts of creativity. Creativity simply means being curious, opening your mind, and being willing to leave your mark on the world and voice your perspective, even if in a small way. 

As a society though, creativity is definitely undervalued and misunderstood. I see a lot of people push it aside because I think they feel like it’s not practical to explore that interest. We get some people who come to Drawing Room and literally whisper about being here. They’re excited about getting back in touch with their creativity but maybe feeling like they haven’t had the figurative space or community to do so before. We have a lot of conversations about dream jobs and life passions, it’s very special. 

Zoe: I guess they worry their mom's going to hear them. 

Angela: Exactly! We’re conditioned to feel guilty about spending time doing things that aren’t considered “work,” but healing that is one of my favorite parts of having created Drawing Room. People can come, be themselves, embrace play, and find others who don’t question why they have to draw, paint, sing, write, cook, etc. to feel happy. And it’s incredibly relatable because that was me for so many years. 

Zoe: Do you have a favorite medium?

Angela: I'm a serial hobbyist, so I love many different things. Clay is probably the one that I feel most familiar with and closest to. It's what started our workshop series and I feel like I can dive back into it at any point. I love that you can make literally anything you can think of; even things you use every single day or that just capture your state of mind at a given moment like a poem. Sometimes I'll just shut off my brain and make something fast and loose without plan, like a big sculpture. Later, I’ll reflect on the circumstances that led something like that to come from my hands. I do also love to make tableware, inspired by vintage designs, but my sculpture work feels very personal. 

I recently took our “Carve & Print” workshop, which is a block printing workshop where we design, carve, and print our own custom stamps on fabrics. I was so smitten with the medium that it’s now a huge part of our programming, branding, and even merch! 

I’m sure the next medium I try I’ll fall in love with too. I’d like to explore glass and metals soon!

Zoe: As a ceramicist with 10-years experience, how did you get into clay and what is your approach to your art?

Angela: I took a course in college and my instructor pulled me aside one day and said, “You're not very good at wheel-throwing, but you're great at hand-building. You should pursue that more.” And I was like, “Okay, I'll take it.” I became drawn to creating ceramic objects that you can’t make on a pottery wheel, which got me thinking about handmade vs mass manufactured items. Why does a handmade mug cost $150 when a mug from Ikea costs $4? They're both ceramics, but the handmade one took so much more time and love. Handmade art is so unscalable. I had this same realization with clothing. When you start learning how things are made, you have so much more appreciation for not only the object and its value, but the entire process and the artist’s thought processes, skills, and time.

Zoe: Who would you say is your biggest artistic inspiration?

Angela: I have very little knowledge on art history, but the first person that came to mind was Donald Glover. I just think he's so talented and such a multi-hyphenate. I still remember when the video for “This Is America” came out. I also just rewatched Atlanta. Incredible show. I think he’s great at creating things that are accessible for consumption, but also capture a slice of our current reality.

I used to be really into making clothes for a while too. One designer that I was really inspired by was Cecilie Bahnsen, who makes these puffy, super romantic dresses. It's not necessarily the style that I wear, but I was very inspired while pouring over the details like the seams, the dramatic silhouettes, and the custom fabric textures. 

Zoe: I love how this shows that your favorite artists don't have to work in the same medium as you. They’re still inspiring nonetheless—it’s the transmedia of art.

Angela: Yes, exactly! 

Zoe: If you could give one bit of advice to a beginner artist, what would it be?

Angela: I think that the first medium you try is not necessarily going to be your medium or the one that you feel most comfortable with or even inspired by. I didn't discover clay (or block printing!) until pretty late in my life. I would encourage people to explore and branch out. I took our drawing class—taught by the wonderful Meiying—and as an exercise, she had everyone draw with their non-dominant hand. Drawing is not something I gravitate toward since I always feel self-conscious about a drawing being “accurate,” but that exercise freed any notion of how a drawing should look. Since you're drawing with your non-dominant hand, it's not going to look realistic. Instead, it creates a style of its own, which was really fascinating to see. That made me want to draw more and experiment with a new style. So I would recommend that people keep experimenting. Find things that really inspire you, pursue it, and see what happens. Learning each new medium is like learning a new language—you’ll be surprised to find that it opens a new door and allows you to express things you haven’t been able to before!

Zoe: What has been your favorite thing about embarking on this journey with Drawing Room?

Angela: I’m very surprised at the number of people willing to bring their time, energy, and expertise to the table for no other reason than they want to be a part of Drawing Room. 

One of my weaknesses is imposter syndrome and it was amplified in the tech space. I was just constantly questioning myself. So starting my own business, I obviously have a lot of convictions and a vision, but I still find trusting my gut to be a really big challenge. It’s been incredible to be able to lean on the team and the community through the millions of decisions that need to be made. Drawing Room as it is today is not something that I woke up one day with a vision for—it’s a collection of really tiny decisions that we’ve made together.

Zoe: It’s like a creative venture in itself. 

Angela: This is definitely the most creative thing I've ever done in my entire life. I’m seeing so many different aspects of my life—so many different interests and passions—as well as the team and culture building aspect come together into one big ball of passion. Finally taking the plunge and starting Drawing Room has been so wild because I'm meeting people who have the same mentality towards creativity. I feel very seen. 

Zoe: Where do you see Drawing Room being in the next 5 or 10 years? 

Angela: I think anything is possible right now! It’s been less than a year since we officially opened and it feels like there’s a lot of directions we can take this … Drawing Room right now is not that big—about 2200 square feet. It feels just like a large living room (large for NYC, at least). Perhaps we could maintain this intimate feeling and just be in a bunch of different locations—little nooks all across the city!

Haven’t been over to Drawing Room yet? We’re open almost every day (Tues-Sun). Pop by with a reservation or just walk in. We also host many workshops and gatherings throughout the month. See you soon!