Fanning the Flames

Been busy painting the walls of my new studio in preparation for my first private class which starts this coming Monday! It's an afterschool drawing class for kids age 8 - 12, and I have 6 students! Thought I'd liven up the place with a bit of paper fire...:^)

Barn's burnt down...now I can see the moon. ~ Masahide

A New Year and a New Studio!

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...

My New View

Looking out my new studio window ~ I'm at the back of the building now with a view of snowy rooftops and the harbour...

What's cooking inside ~ plans to create large drawing triptychs (I have three ceiling high panels to work on) and ponderings on the significance of the number three...

A New Blue Space

I can see clearly now...

Packing up my old studio...

Sorting through the work from my flat file...

My new studio...

Finding old pieces of and about my Mom, to bring into my new space...

George Saw Edna, 2005

photolitho with mixed media on paper

detail

detail

Blue Self, 2003

silkscreen

Night Window/Blind Contour Self, 2003

felt tip pen and watercolor on paper

The day before my mother died, my husband helped me pack up my studio. I was convinced that I wanted to come home and set up my studio in Woolwich - a bedroom had opened up and I told myself I would save money and resources by not paying rent and travelling the 50 minute ride. Besides, I had begun to feel very cramped in my studio. We rented a U-Haul and brought home everything but the work from my flat file. I got the call about my Mom's passing the next morning, and hit the road and spent the week in RI. Yesterday I drove to the studio to fetch my artwork. When I walked into my empty space, I thought, Wow, this looks good all cleared out. What am I doing?? I don't want to leave!!! I ran downstairs to talk to my landlord to see if it was too late to change my mind - I'd given my notice weeks ago, but it was still January. I knew that another artist in the building had his heart set and was ready to move into my space - my landlord asked would I consider moving into a new space? I looked at it. It's a bit smaller than my old studio, but it has more wall space to work on, has a view of the harbour, gets strong morning light, and the floor is blue. That felt refreshing. I said, Yes, this will work. (Whew! Just in the nick of time! I felt like Elaine running away from the altar to hop on the bus with Benjamin in The Graduate...)

I made the decision to move home in the weeks when I knew that my mother was dying. Maybe the little girl in me wanted to go home and hide, I don't know. But yesterday I could think more clearly, and I knew that I was making a mistake. I need the contact with the other artists in the building, and I love being downtown as much as I love being at home in the woods. I can work from my home space and my city studio. I teach in Portland one night and one morning - I can put in half days in the studio on those days, and my husband works in Portland everyday, so I can always hitch a ride with him on other days. I don't know what I was thinking. Hey, my Mom just died. I guess it's natural to feel discombobulated...

I just needed to empty everything out! Note to self: Do This More Often.

So, I will use my home space to store the majority of my stuff, and use my studio downtown for work only, and whatever supplies I'm currently using.

I sorted through all my work yesterday and gravitated toward certain pieces to bring into my new blue space.

Ideas are percolating...

Zillah and Miller

Great Grandmother Zillah Camp in my studio with two of my self-portraits in the background.

I'm nearly finished with this latest portrait from my Mything Persons series. I need to work on the eyes a bit more, and the blouse. Methinks I resemble my great grandmother...

Nesting

Some corners of my home in Woolwich. I've been painting walls, sewing curtains and pillows, rearranging, cleaning out closets and re-organizing STUFF. Still a ways to go. After being away from the house part-time for five years, there is alot to do to get it in order. I enjoy chaos as part of my creative process, but I do not enjoy living in chaos! I made it back into my studio earlier this week to start the organizing process there as well. When I get everything whipped into shape in the studio (and it will require a whipping!) I will get back to my art. I read this horoscope on-line last night, and it really fits for what my fall has been about! Here's what astrobarry had to say:

Pisces...I'd like you to starting looking ahead to 2010, when benevolent blessing-bestower Jupiter will spend a good chunk of the year in your sign, bringing you an expanded vision of what you as an individual are capable of. Jupiter in one's sign usually delivers a memorable year, so I'm already getting excited for you. In preparation for this, use Mars's new long-term residence in your 6th for an attack on whatever unfinished work you've left to gather dust for too long now—your disorganized papers, your mediocre day-to-day job performance, your out-of-shape body, your household projects or other nagging chores whispering for your attention. Clear the decks during this tail end of '09. (my emphasis!) Make way for a bigger you.

(Suhweeet!)

Have a great weekend everyone!