All in One Place, but Not in Place

Here's our intrepid worker, Mike, finishing up a corner in our new home.


Small sampling of the boxes left to unpack in my studio. View toward east side of studio.



More boxes to unpack. View of west side of studio.

We did the big move last Friday and Saturday. Hired 2 Men and a Truck. They were quite remarkable. Two rather average sized guys showed up at our door on Friday morning and I thought Uh-Oh, how are they going to do this? I've never seen such strength packed in 2 not very big people.

They parked the van on Vananda and ran a ramp across the sidewalk (in the air) onto the property in front of our apartment. Everything had to be carted up the entry way stairs. They literally ran from the truck to the apt. each time they dropped off a load of boxes. It took them more time than budgeted to pack, not because they were slow, but because we had so much stuff in our apartment.

By about 5 p.m. they tackled my studio. I couldn't watch as they carried the press down the stairs. They got it down without injuring themselves, or the press. I breathed a major sigh of relief.

In addition to everything else, we had a rented storage space. Even though the van appeared full, the heroic 2 Men insisted on going to the storage room, where they unpacked a chunk of the van, repacking and fitting all our additional stuff in.

They drove to Tucson. We drove to Oracle. Didn't get home until about 10 pm.

The 2 Men arrived at 7:30 am the next morning, raring to go. Oh, to be young again. Anyway, they unpacked much faster than they packed, leaving us with mountains of boxes among our not quite completed phase 1 renovation.

Been unpacking ever since. I know I won't remember where I put half the stuff. My studio is beginning to take shape.

It's all in Oracle. We're here! My next post will be back to making art. I promise!

The Boy Eats Broccoli (with Thanks to Carla Reed, Jeremiah and Corinne)

Twenty some years ago, our son Mathew was born. He was very early. 3 1/2 months early to be exact. He spent a long time on a respirator in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix. He weighed 3 lbs., 15 oz. when we were finally able to take him home. He was still on oxygen and needless to say, was very fragile.

It wasn't until he was 10 years old that I created the painting you see. The images in the small canvases are xerox transfers of the photos my husband Jim took while Mat was in the NICU. I used gel medium to create a "skin", which held the ink from the xerox, once the paper was dissolved in water. I painted over the top of the images. They're a bit hard to see at this size.

The first is of Mat in the incubator with multiple tubes running in and out of him. The hands are mine and Mat's big brother, Jeremiah's.

The second is of me, holding Mat. This was a very big deal. He was 3 weeks old before he was strong enough to be taken out of his incubator. It took 2 nurses to get him out, what with all the wires and tubes that had to come with him.

The third image is of Jim, looking into the incubator. I took the original photo.

The fourth is of Jeremiah, holding his brother. At this point, Mat was in "Feeding and Growing", the area in the NICU where the job of the infant is to eat and get big enough to go home. Jeremiah was such a trooper during the whole time Mat was in the hospital. He brought his homework every night and did it by Mat's bedside. I don't think he ever once complained about all the time he had to spend at the hospital.



Guess who?! Yes, this is Mathew. Home from college. Eating broccoli, and a variety of raw food items he prepared for himself for lunch.

Now, this might seem like nothing to remark on. But it is. A family joke has always been that Mat never lets anything green enter his mouth except mint chip ice cream. Getting him to eat as a baby and then for most of his growing up years was no joke at all. He needed the food to grow. And he needed to grow so that his lungs would grow, allowing them to get healthy. Eating just didn't appeal much to Mat. He did eventually eat ice cream. And bean burritos. And noodles with butter. And very little else.

His physical therapist when he was little had a mission. It was to teach Mat to tie his shoes. And to eat broccoli. Many sessions were taken with Carla Reed touting the splendors of broccoli. Steaming broccoli. Adding butter and other condiments. Offering it to Mat. Mat would gamely let a morsel go into his mouth, only to gag and spit it out.

I credit Mat's wonderful brother Jeremiah and Corinne, Jere's significant other, for the breakthrough you see in the photo above. Jeremiah and Corinne changed their diet to Raw Food when Mat was visiting during spring break. Apparently, it rubbed off on Mat.

There he is, actually voluntarily eating broccoli and other green things. Wonders never cease! Thank you, Jeremiah and Corinne.

Something Stinks, or There's a Foul Odor in My New Studio

So here it is. My new studio. I'm partially moved in, and have 2 paintings I'm ready to dive into. The one on the left is almost done. The one on the right has just barely been started.

Two things are stopping me from getting to work. Well, maybe three. Actually, maybe four.

Excuse #1
In the foreground, you see buckets of paint. I'm deep into painting walls and floors in our new home. I keep thinking, I'll just do one more project. That one leads to another. The domino effect.

Excuse #2
My son Mat is coming home from college tomorrow. I'm very excited. Since we're brand new to the area and have been deep into house renovation, we really haven't explored Oracle, much less the surrounding area. There are all kinds of possibilities out there, and I'd love to spend time with Mat and his Dad checking things out.

Excuse #3
The Odor. Several weeks ago, it came to my attention that something was living in the wall and ceiling of my studio bathroom. I could hear activity–scuttling about with scritchy-scratchy little feet. Upon examination, I discovered numerous fecal offerings. Too large for a mouse.

We got a trap. The nice kind, kind. You trap the critter and take it far away and let it go. Our friend tripped the trap, got the food and got away. While Jim was on the ladder retrieving the empty trap, he looked down, and guess what was at the foot of the ladder? Yes, our friend the pack rat. Jim captured him (her) and took it on a ride out to some open land, where he let it go.

End of story?

Well, I haven't heard any noises. But I thought I was beginning to detect a bit of an odor in the studio. Every day it's gotten a little worse. This morning when I opened the door, I was bowled over by the smell. It literally made my eyes water. Even with the doors and windows open, the smell prevails.

Now what to do? Do I have dead baby Pack Rats in my wall? An unexpected dilemma.

Is this just an excuse? Maybe. Perhaps I should acquire some sort of gas mask to wear while working in my brand new studio. Or tear out the wall and see what's inside. A kind of CSI for the art studio.

Excuse #4

This is the real reason. Whenever I have a period of time when I'm not working, it's really difficult to get back into it. When I paint on a daily basis, I'm happy. I'm fulfilled. When I'm not working regularly, I get nasty. But somehow, it's devilishly hard to get started again. It doesn't make sense, but, there it is.

What is in Your Studio?

I just responded to a request by Steve Doherty at American Artist for input on Artist Studios. Apparently he's going to produce a magazine article on the subject. I got the request via Twitter.

Yes, I tweet. I admit it. Not too much. But I am kind of getting the hang of it and can see where it could be useful. For example, I posed the question of how to deal with finishing a concrete floor and got several good suggestions. I tweeted about the pack rat living in my studio wall, and got one back from a follower wanting advice once I figured out how to get rid of my pack rat. So I tweeted her back with a suggestion.

Anyway, I took a lot of time answering the tweet from American Artist. Studio space; how you get it, how you keep it, how you manage it, is close to my heart. Here's my answer:

I got your tweet, and thought I'd put my 2 cents in. This is a great subject and one critical to every artist, as you know.

I've had many studios over the years. The worst was none at all, seconded by the top of a washer and dryer. I'm currently moving studios. So designing my new space is something at the forefront of my mind. The sooner it's done, the sooner I can get back to painting.

Most recently, I've been renting a studio space in an historic plaza in Ajo, Arizona. It's 350 sq. feet, with wonderful light. I've been thrilled, as it's the best I've had in years. However, it's been strictly temporary. At the whim of the landlord. The whole plaza is going to be renovated and there's no telling when I'll be booted out. In addition, there's barely any electricity (it's jerry rigged), and the bathroom is at the bottom of a very steep flight of stairs, when it's open. When it's closed, I'm SOL.

To digress a bit. I picked up a book by Eric Rudd a year or so ago. The Art Studio/Loft Manual was an eye opening read. I decided then and there, that the only way to have the security of a permanent studio space would be to own it. My husband and I started looking. We are working on a project about US Route 89, which runs from Mexico to Canada. (If you're interested, it's ). Anyway, our parameters for looking were anywhere on or close to US 89 from Utah south. (North is too cold).

What I wanted at first was a big warehouse we could convert to live/work space. We looked at a few places. Decided at this stage of the game, it would be too much to take on, too much time away from work, and too expensive. So then we looked at houses. North of Salt Lake, Salt Lake, the small towns going south of Salt Lake. Flagstaff, the Verde Valley. It's not so easy to find something workable in our price range. I wanted at least 500 sq. ft. for my studio. Jim needs space for his office (he's a landscape photographer).

We finally found it! A tiny 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom house in Oracle, AZ, north of Tucson, just off Hwy 77, which is historic Route 89. The house itself is quite quirky. But...it has 4 garages! The largest is an end to end oversized 2 car garage, finished inside, with a 10' high ceiling. This is becoming my space. It's about 500 sq. ft., with an additional 100 sq. ft. room with a sink and enclosed toilet.

We had a handyman take out the garage door. Went to a recycled building supplies place and found 2 glass doors and a window. Finished the concrete floor with epoxy paint. Painted the walls. We're now constructing painting storage space. There is a 12' long set of cabinets left over from the previous owner. We're going to put a platform of plywood on it, with spacers every 2 feet. A bit hard to describe, since we're designing as we go. What I like is that the paintings will be up high and won't take up floor space. Did something similar in my Ajo studio and it worked out well.

The actual process of making a studio work is always challenging. This one is long, so I envision one half for printmaking, bookmaking, and mixed media. The other half will be for painting. I suspect there will be months of arranging and rearranging the space until it works well for me. But it's mine!

My blog has a few shots of the studio space under construction. Also if you scroll down further, you can see the Ajo studio before moving in, being used, and being dismantled.

Hope this is useful for you.

It was nice to go back in time and think about all of my various studio spaces. The best part is that my new studio will be the largest, most functional one yet. And, hopefully, my last!

Happy in My New Studio (Except for the Pack Rat)

Well, here I am, happy in my new (close to completed) studio. A storage rack for my paintings still needs to be built. Baseboard needs to be painted. I've decided to repaint the north wall a whiter white. The front door needs to be cased in and sealed.

The biggest challenge is going to be getting rid of the pack rat that is currently residing in a wall. He (or she) comes out and tromps around in the ceiling above the toilet. We know it's not a mouse because the droppings are rather large. Yuck. I'll be heading to our local hardware store to pick up some sort of humane trap. The question is what does one do with a captured pack rat?
This is what really freaks me out. I don't particularly want to have to actually see this fellow.

I've moved in a couple easels and a few tables. Now I need to watch the light to figure out where to locate my painting area.

I'm amazed at how quickly it's coming together!

No Longer a Garage

Doesn't this look inviting? My new space is starting to take shape. This is a snapshot from the patio, with the new glass door to my studio.



And this was a garage door just yesterday. I don't know how Mike works so fast, but I'm glad he does. I'll be able to paint the wall and door some time tomorrow.



This is the patio door from inside the studio. I'll be painting it tomorrow, too.

This leaves the nasty job of cleaning a ton of mouse droppings from a ledge in the bathroom area. And then, applying epoxy paint to the floor, after scrubbing it clean.

With luck and a lot of work, I'll be up and running in my studio by Monday.

By the way, you can go to the last blog post to see some before snapshots.

Moving Out, Moving On

It seems like just yesterday that I was hauling boxes and boxes of art materials upstairs into my new studio space. It was quite a leap for me, having never had a studio that wasn't a former bedroom or dining room in our living space.

Now, here I am packed up, ready to move on.

Here's Jim, moving fast. He is always my hero, but particularly today, when he hauled numerous heavy boxes, not to mention heavier furniture down the stairs for me.


Our new home has an oversize, end to end garage with a high ceiling. It came equipped with a lube pit. Didn't need a 6' deep hole in my studio, so Jim covered it with cement board. It's quite sturdy, and I don't feel the least bit like I'm going to fall in.


This new (actually it's used) glass door will be replacing the solid door (hopefully tomorrow).



Here is the garage door opening. Mike, our intrepid worker, has removed the ugly garage door and is getting ready to install a big window and glass door.

More photos tomorrow, when he's finished his part of turning the garage into my own almost 600 square foot studio space. Then it will be up to me to seal the floor, finish painting the interior, and most importantly, get to work!