oubliette

On Friday, just in time for my birthday, Thom and I signed a year lease on a wonderful, 1,000+ square foot studio space. It's big, as large (if not larger than) our cottage, and... just perfect. He'll be doing his woodworking and I'll be painting, and we'll hopefully also be combining the two.

The studio is on the second floor of a 200 year-old barn. It has one large room, perfect for large work and a library; a smaller room where I'll do most of my smaller painting, as well as holding open model sessions for local artists; and a loft for storage. There's also a small room/ large hallway-type thing where it's dark, just right for burning silkscreens and doing finishing work (there's an exhaust fan). The small room also has some really gorgeous and very convenient cabinetry/ drawers/ counter space- more than enough storage.

This studio is the first real place I've had just for art, and this is really a transition into what I hope I'll be doing for the rest of my life. It's more than a little exciting, and more than a little scary. I'll need to be cranking out work to keep up with the rent, (hopefully the open-model sessions will help) and we hope to start having open-studio/ gallery shows as soon as we've gotten situated.

I know there are things I'm going to need along the way: some chairs and stools; a little stereo; little things. I know Thom is looking for a table saw. If you know of any locals getting rid of things like that, we'd be more than happy to come pick them up.

Of course, I think the thing I'll need more than anything is your advice, your encouragement, and your positive thoughts. This is one of the first shaky steps of my adult life, but I know that with the love and support of my friends, I can take off into a sprint.