I'm assuming your mental block on receipts is because you don't know what to do with them and if you had a solution, that would help the mental block?
Here's what I do with receipts. I have an accordian file labeled with categories such as:
office supply
computer related
postage/shipping
...and so on
The first year as you're learning, you can label the sections as you get receipts and they are defined for you. I'm sure you would have a category for "art supplies & materials". At the end of the year, I take those receipts out and put them in an envelop labeled with the year and reuse the same accordian file for the next year.
I use Quicken for my checking and I enter everything in there, including things related to business where I used cash. For cash items, I set up a yearly cash account called "2001 Tax Related", for example. So, I enter these into Quicken before the receipt gets filed. I'd suggested having a basket or envelop for unentered receipts and once they are entered, file them into the accordian file.
In Quicken, you can "split" transactions. So, if you went to the grocery store and bought mainly groceries, but picked up a copy of American Artist magazine at the same time, you can notate that one item as a business expense in your entry.
You'll want to get a separate business account and deposit any business income in there. Tie that in with your personal account electronically and then you can transfer money from your business into your personal account, which you would also have set up in Quicken and also set up for electronic processing. That saves tons of time and balancing your two checking accounts is a breeze. All you do is download the transactions electronically and normally it's balanced just liked that.
When your two accounts are set up electronically, you can also pay your bills through this, from either account. I can't tell you how much time this saves! It's wonderful and well-worth the small monthly fee.
I can't give you any advice about deducting for the creation of your studio last year, but I'm sure there's a way. I would recommend asking a professional accountant on that.