A Tease and a Discussion of Art Making

This is where I have been spending what feels like nearly every waking minute (that I'm not at job/work.) I have been a very dedicated studio artist, doing what seems like a year's worth of collage and art making compressed into three or four months. But this book project is almost done and it gives me a moment to reflect on the process...
It is very interesting to see the difference in my own working habits when they're linked to a specific show, and a funding source. Typically, I do a bunch of pieces and I have total control. If I get bored or an idea runs into a wall and I no longer am compelled by it, I can abandon it or put it down temporarily. In a case like this one, where I have actually received working money up front, I am expected/required to provide a finished project. Very different!
I am fortunate that the ideas I've been exploring have come fast and furious and my interest has been sustained because I'd be in deep shit if I hadn't wanted to complete the project. I am assuming this does indeed happen. I can imagine having "the well run dry" half way into something, and thinking, "What a waste of time! How on earth am I going to finish this mess!" Like I say, I'm lucky that hasn't happened, but I will allow that I am tired of working so exclusively on one piece and I am very glad to be almost done.

So here's the book, Better Guns and Gardens, spread out over my auxiliary table. That's a tease, alright as I don't think you can see too much at this small a scale except that, yes, it does exist! All I have left to do is finish editing one "article" and finish up my "outro" (what I like to call my conclusion, being the opposite of an "intro"). Parts of it are pretty funny and I'm assuming parts of it aren't, because it's hard to be consistently funny. But lord knows I tried and in general, I am very happy with it. I have a roughly mocked up edition that I keep jiggling; I need to get the order of the pages just right. But the end is nigh!
Again, the freedom afforded me if I do work simply to please myself is great but as I make a lot of work, I don't often get to exhibit/show all of what I do. Much of it lingers in squalid oblivion in a drawer of my flat file and only gets viewed by the occasional fortunate friend. Even the grants I have received in the past didn't stipulate a particular body of work or "themed exercise"; this has been different.
I'm not attempting to draw hard conclusions here about whether one experience is "better" than the other. Really, I'm just reflecting on two different modes of working. I think, ultimately, I'd love to be able to be in my studio full time and not have to interrupt my studio work with the necessity of making a living. I've been luckier than some artists. I can honestly say I've made part of my income form my art! And I can't wait until I get installment #2 from this project so that I can buy Bob and I a new computer...
And oh boy! I have another project for the show in NYC to finish. Guess I know what I'll be doing until January!

Falling Through the Cracks

The upshot is with all the moving studio to studio and living room from studio (and back again) certain other things inevitably get neglected. Like our deck could be mowed! (Bob's foot presented in an interesting seated position. Not a typical occurrence!)

Looks like salad underfoot! Oh well, you can't get to everything... I am embracing a really philosophical view as the work entailed in construction (and occupation) of the studio was all encompassing. But the interior looks fantastic and last night, we had friends over to initiate the new spaces. It's nice to see the studio- as well as the living room- from other's perspectives.

We do have some weeds. The garden is probably 90% planted, but now things loom like edging and staking and weeding. It is truly a never ending cycle. But look at this!:

I'm actually working in my new studio. I'm so psyched! So what am I doing here, posting on the Internet? Signing off for now...

Transitional Chaos

This posting is going to run heavy on pictures and lighter on verbiage as I'm so tired from moving furniture and stacks of art work and books! My hands are all curled up like little dead animals. Bob and I moved the large cabinet that was in my (old) studio last night after I got home from work. It weighed a ton, but it opened up a whole new dimension in living room horizons... Yes, we have a living room. It's still in upheaval, as seen in the above photo, but it's getting there. Tomorrow, we move the flat file.

And of course, we have to be doing thirty thousand things at once... like starting seeds. Sun flowers (two kinds) and morning glories (Flying Saucers). Don't ask where those are going to be moved to, after we relocate the flat file to my new studio. Lets' move them at least twelve times!
And remember that nice empty, open studio? Well, not for long. take a look at this:

Piles of art work and boxes and raw material for collages and junk. It will get better eventually, as all this is going into the studio annex. I am really going to try and keep most of my working space unencumbered by clutter- see how long that lasts. Hahahahahaha.

I love having a studio annex. I can store all my completed work and the raw materials like fabric and paper out of the way. Looks different, doesn't it? I hope our friends Sheldon and Louise see this posting, because this is the room they stayed in while here in March! It will take a couple more days, but then i should be able to settle in and start making art!

The Whiteness of the Walls

Look! I have walls and they're painted white!
A blog posting of few words and several sundry pictures... because I'm tired! Nay, exhausted! All the schlepping and screwing and spackling and sanding then computer dilemmas that didn't want us to go online and post our progress. Days spent on ladders and in cars and trucks making endless forays to Home Depot. All the doing and wiring and then...
I have a studio.

I have switches- three way, no less (Thank you Jonathan!) (Surrounding wall not sanded yet in this photo.)
I have a fan: (well, I'd like to think I have many...)

That fan really works! It was quite hot in my studio the other day and I was worrying that the summer would do me in what with a black roof and lots of windows but the fan is super! Three speeds of air circulation and what a difference.
And I have lovely studio corners and spaces:

Look at that handsome space! I am so happy! But so tired. I'm retiring now. I have moved piles of art materials from here to there (and living room materials from there to here) and I deserve to sleep. I'm hoping to move the rest of my things in tomorrow, or maybe the next day. And  then to work!

This Sheet Rocks!

I really feel we're closing in on completion! Bob and I worked to get sheet rock on the walls and should be done with that tomorrow. The begins the messy joy of taping and applying and sanding joint compound.
The walls make it seem like an actual room, not just an uncompleted space. I can already envision making masterpieces here...
Here's another shot of the corner. it is great that we got the entire north side of the studio covered.

It's one of those funny paradoxes: does the sheet rock make the space appear larger or smaller? Maybe a little of both.
And meanwhile, back in my old studio, we had four sheets of sheet rock up for me to work on, and we had to take them down so as to reuse them. Of course, this necessitated my moving an ungodly pile of magazines, art materials, a flat file, years of old work that was piled up. What a mess!

My old studio is a complete disaster! But I guess we can recite the old saw about having to break eggs to make an omelette. I keep reminding myself (and Bob) that a remarkable side effect of my studio being completed is that we'll have a real living room. A place to entertain and (gasp) relax.

Oh, We're Wired Alright

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! That's electrical cable looking pretty much like the squiggly things I cut out and apply to my collages. Bob and I threaded many feet of two different kinds of wiring through my rafters and walls. Who knew that switches and outlets were on different kinds of wire?!?!!? I guess this is why it's a good thing we have an electrical friend named Jonathan...

And this is the main box that Bob and Jonathan installed in my ceiling, where all the wires meet up and get sent to all corners of the room. (Actually, I think my wiring requirements are somewhat spartan as I don't use many tools that require power and really only plug my stereo and my lights in.) this is getting very exciting as I can almost visualize moving into my studio soon...

Look at this! I spent the later afternoon and early evening insulating the walls. I managed to do about half my space today, wearing gloves and face mask and goggles. I could barely breath and the goggles kept fogging up but I got it done. Now all we need to do is sheet rock and then Jonathan can come back and hook up all that lovely spaghetti and I will have power.
And here's another shot of progress on the hoof:

I have an interior door! But doesn't it look a wee bit "Twin Peaks-ish"? I'm sure once the wood wall gets covered with new sheet rock and I paint the door white and the wires are concealed, it won't reek so heavily of cabin and peculiar goings on.... but it IS my studio so peculiar goings on are the norm!
But the door is great: it allows me to shut the studio from my storage/annex room (which is still semi-occupied by living room furniture- although the rug and a chair or two are in my "old" studio and some of my studio stuff has migrated to the "new" studio. I'm in a state of flux and semi-confused!) Let's be real: it is going to take a bit of time before all the dust has settled and I have all my art materials and things arranged before it seems really real. I hope my muses got that change of address post card.

A Floral Interlude...

Wow! I've been so busy that bloggery seems so long ago! Look at how lovely our Magnolia is; I think it's extra pretty because the spring has been so cool. Personally, I love a warmer time of it, but the trees seem to like linger in the cool weather. here's the whole thing:

This will sound nuts, but we're going to mover this tree before it gets any bigger. And we've read that you should move them in bloom, so as soon as Bob gets his chain saw back, move it we will. (We need the chain saw to remove a dead tree where this tree is moving to.) The Magnolia smells great, too. And on the Magnolia front, the Star Magnolia that I gave Bob for his birthday last year isn't deceased after all. We were sure the stellar combination of extreme heat and drought last summer coupled with extreme cold this winter had done it in. It sure was doing a convincing impersonation of a dead tree. But I discovered today that it has leaf buds and I'm relieved. I was searching high and low for my receipt as most nurseries guarantee their stock for a year. (And we're not neophyte gardeners who plant things upside down or do everything all wrong. Not usually!)
Also, we got a tiny- but delicious!- harvest from our second year asparagus planting. My sister Beatrice gave Bob asparagus plants for his birthday last year and they are doing really well.

It's okay to harvest a few stalks this early on...
So maybe it's been good that the spring is off to a late start as we've been busy. We've been working a lot and I applied for a grant and we're still at work on my studio... I'm exhausted just thinking about it all!
And I have only just begun to get psyched about this year's garden. I'm going to bed.

Fun (Controlled Destruction)

The view from the other side. This is in our (now) living room looking back at the wall that will be the DOOR to my studio from inside the house.. Notice how I carefully and thoughtfully labelled it? The window will be removed and then sealed over with sheet rock, but instead of going all the way to the corner with the door and putting it where the window is, we opted to move more to the center, in part because the electricity that exists as plugs and outlets in under and near the window. This will make re-wiring easier.
Here we are several hours later:

Boy that was fun! All I could think about all day at work was going home and smashing the sheet rock out of the way and exposing whatever was underneath. I discovered we really do have studs! And insulation! (That was reassuring. You can assume you have these things, but never really know.) It was like an at-home of archaeological dig, uncovering the layers and history of our house. And it was fun to whale away at the wall and watch it collapse- quite easily. (I guess that's why people are able to put their fists through their walls when upset or angry. Although that would have to hurt.) I also revealed the fact that our walls are 24" on center, not 16". We'll only have to remove one stud and reinforce the outer studs. There's this interesting temporary reinforcing that we'll have to do to support the wall when installing the new header and side uprights (which have a name that escapes me right now...)
At least we can see what we're doing with the wall board removed. The living room is less a living room with all the furniture stuffed into the other side and the sofa crammed up against the book case. Remember that Sheldon and Louise slept here only a few days ago and now it's a construction site. Progress!

Studio Progress, Early Spring Style

Oh boy! I couldn't be happier! Bob, with a tiny bit of lifting help from Sheldon and yours truly, got my actual, official studio windows in place this last week. Doesn't that look great? All it takes is a few days of cooperative weather and above freezing temperatures, and the universe smiles down on us and windows are installed. No more plastic for me! (I took the liberty of tweaking out a few stray dead branches that were obstructing the beauty of the above photo. Don't you just love Photoshop?)
Here's an interior shot:

The windows are hinged on the tops and will push out from the bottom. Bob is investigating appropriate hardware. This resumption of the studio project has made me ecstatic. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (no, I am not departing this mortal coil!) and the reality that soon I will take up occupancy. Hooray!
Sheldon and Louise are still with us and I can't say it enough: they're the best house guests. We have put them through all kinds of tests and adventures (Like last night we had a tremendous downpour. Sheldon reported to us this morning that he had a drip on his face... ooops! We seem to have a bit of a ceiling leak; that would happen above a guest's bed. Yuck yuck yuck.) But other than that, we're encouraging them to use a bit of their East Coast time to look for real estate. Remember how much fun we had last week?

Uber Busy

So, no we didn't decide blogging was beneath us or that life had become simply too rich in irony to continue. The dumb fact for my silence is being so busy as to make one's (smiley faced) head spin and explode. To whit:
I have been producing like crazy for several studio projects. The "Blue America" (upside down black and blue and backwards...) has continued and is about to erupt into a full blown World Atlas. Yes! What a great idea... Also, my "Better Guns and Gardens" (produced in cahoots with and underwriting by Artspace's CT Bound/Unbound project) is underway and pretty entertaining. (So far, basic outline of articles and themes, several collages, including the cover. This is a good one!)
Also, I spent a day photographing for Artspace's annual fundraiser (more on that later). I probably bit off more than I should have been chewing on recently. Chomp, chomp, chomp.
We are also (gasp) house hunting... not for us, thankfully! But for our dear friends Sheldon and Louise, up from the great SouthWest. (They are here, staying with us, because of unfortunate family circumstances. But Bob and I are more than happy to provide for them as they have so graciously provided for us in the past).

Now, I'll be the first to admit that if you house hunt for others, it's kinda fun. And Bob and I felt right at home in the A frame just up the road from the BauHaus Chicken Coop. Look at those exposed wires dangling from the lower level ceiling! Makes me feel right at home. (Actually, we keep telling Sheldon and Louise that we saw way worse abodes when we were looking. As Bob has pointed out, all the mechanicals look pretty updated.)

Oh! See? We also saw plenty of this sort of action in our pursuit of the perfect home. Needs some cosmetics, (as well as work) but it's a suitable house for an artist, and in a great location. (Like I said, right up the road and around the bend from us. Doesn't get better than that.)

But here's one of the better shots. The living room has a very high, dramatic cathedral ceiling and there is a loft and a interesting confluence of spaces. We also took Sheldon and Louise to look at an empty very old church building that was possibly beyond salvage. Gaping holes in the foundation, collapsing cupola and in a generally disintegrating state. But like I say, Bob and I saw some awful places, so we took that in stride. (Sheldon and Louise deigned to alight from the car...)
Lastly, Bob got another one of my studio windows inn place. Hot dog! Now that the weather has decided to become somewhat springlike (despite the threat of snow tonight), we can resume construction. Bye bye plastic!

Yo-de-le-odel-a-ee--oo!!

Hey! There it is! My little wood stove! Bob cleaned it all up and now we just need to get some pipe and an insert that goes through the roof. (Bob's also making a metal pad that sits on the floor so that I don't burn the studio down when putting wood into the stove and sparks and the like spew out.) The stove is cute; nice and small so that it doesn't dominate the room and interfere with traffic flow.
But here's the funny part: when our good friend Joe (Hi Joe!) introduced us to the stove, he said it was a "Yodel". I took this literally and when we got home, I googled "Yodel wood stove" and up comes some crazy yodeling pickle (who thinks this stuff up?) and links to some wood stove company named "Jotul". I think there's an error until it dawns on me that Yodel is actually spelled Jotul (with a little accent line through the o) because it's Norwegian! It's pronounced Yodel... it takes me a while.
Anyway, call it what you will, it looks great and as the weather is starting to turn colder, the idea of extra heat is compelling. By the way, the side of the stove has a really cool insignia:

Nice design. I was afraid the stove would be homely or dumpy, but it's attractive.
In the meantime, here's a piece of advice. If you're planning an art show, don't bother spending good money on cards to advertise. Most cards get chucked right into the trash can and the few unfortunate ones that survive get pressed into service as... SILENT BUTLERS!!!

Yuk, yuk, yuk.

Walla-Walla Wonderful!

Last night I paid a visit to Home Depot on my way back from work. I have personally never purchased so much wood. A nice young man helped me analyze and load every piece of wood individually. I had started with my shopping list that Bob had composed. I realized that 28 2x4's (8 feet long), loads of 2x6's 10 feet long, twelve foot long 2x4's... this stuff weighed tons! And the racks were way over my head. Thank goodness that there were few shoppers at Home Depot and I had help. Look at that pile of wood!
So this morning we started bright and early to finish up the long wall. And an unexpected friend stopped by and Bob had to leave to take his mother to the eye doctor. I thought we'd never get this wall assembled, let alone erected.
Bob got home well after 3:00 and we started to wale away. We finished framing. And Joe arrived ten minutes later. The sun was casting long shadows.

Bob went next door and called on our neighbors, who were crazy enough to offer to help if we needed any assistance in raising the wall. Meagan and her son CJ came over. Between the five of us, it was easier getting that wall up than any other part of the proceedings! It literally took five minutes.

Lookee there! It stands! Bob nailed up cross pieces and nailed in the sole plate and miracles of miracles! We have a wall...

Wowee Zowie!!! I got window holes, I got a partial studio! Huzzah for good neighbors and walls that stand!

Honey, Where's the Carport?

I actually gasped as I turned into our driveway the other day. The carport was gone! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!
This means we are one giant step closer to my studio construction and that the first major stage is done.
According to Bob and Joe, the roofing came off easily and even the beams came down in a straight forward manner. I know it was a lot of work, but it went pretty well. The particle board is now stacked up awaiting my pulling out the nails.

It's entertaining to think this tawdry little pile of particle board, with a think skin of roofing, was strong enough to withstand the rigors of winter. See those saw horses behind the pile? Bob and I spent about ten minutes this sweltering morning, transferring all the stacked beams (in the earlier photo) over to these saw horses so that there'd be a clear work area. Three minutes after we carefully piled the boards, there was a tremendous crash! as the sawhorses collapsed and the beams spilled to the ground. Fortunately, we were well out of the way and no intentional plant life was crushed (we do have Japanese maples and caster beans planted in that strip of poison ivy infested No-Man (or Woman's) Land).
So the next stage is to locate the septic tank cover and mark it and do a bit of excavation to assemble a foundation. Two sides of the foundation will be the blacktop that is previously existing and the house will be the fourth side. Interestingly, we thought for sure there must be some footing under the beams that held up the roof. But apparently when Joe and Bob had all the rafters off, Joe leaned up against the vertical and it started to fall over: they were simply sitting on the blacktop, sort of "friction fit" construction!
On a hotter and hazier note, it is really hot and hazy. The neighbors's have obviously taken leave of their senses as they are out MOWING their lawn. We stacked the ill-fated wood pile and then retreated to the air conditioned bedroom, where we had a matinee. Bob and I and Jules hunkered down and ate raspberries, plucked fresh from our garden (thank you Beatrice and John for the plants!). I'm signing off, though, as the room with the computer is not air conditioned and almost unbearable!