My first visitors - my daughter Kaitlyn and my son-in-law Cory. (They were good company, and also provided a nice human scale to show off the size of those windows! :^)
A little bit sad about the place you are leaving, a little bit glad about the place you are going,
I found myself thinking as I turned in the keys at my Portland studio yesterday afternoon, this well loved line from Robert McCloskey's childhood classic, Time of Wonder.
This certainly is a time of wonder, the turning of the year. A time for introspection, assessments, and resolutions. A time for new plans. I even pulled The Fool card for my day card today as I will be moving my art gear into my spacious new studio with the help of a couple of good friends this morning.
I will miss The Artist Studios and all the artists in that nurturing old building. But the time on the road (an hour door to door), and the expense of gas and parking was wearing me down physically and financially. Plus, I literally outgrew my space. After producing my last drawing series, my large triptych, dragging them out of that space onto the hall floors felt just as though I'd hatched from a chrysalis and had laid my big wings out to dry. And once hatched, there's no going back.
My big new studio is in downtown Bath, an 8 minute drive from home, at 72 Front Street, with a phenomenal second story view of the Kennebec River and the Carlton Bridge. There are several other artists in the building, as well as lawyers and yoga teachers - there's a lighthouse preservation office, and a dance studio, to name just a few of the diverse occupants under my new roof! I will be able to teach at this location, comfortably do portrait sittings, have a life drawing group, and make more giant drawings if I so choose!
I think I am more than just a little bit glad about the place I am going...
