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Open Studio
Sometimes when you get really busy you become aware of habitual flaws in your thinking. You can't get as much done as you hoped, or it's harder than you thought, because, you discover, you're not seeing your workload accurately to begin with.
Managing the many unexpected challenges of my studio remodel - while editing one of the biggest American Craft issues of the year and striving to keep the rest of an already overloaded life on track - has had that effect.
This alternately exhausting and exhilarating experience has reminded me of one of my favorite cartoons, which shows a bizarrely complex ...
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This is the second in a series of posts about Editor in Chief Monica Moses' studio remodel, which is being filmed for a cable TV show. Read the first post here.
In the last couple of weeks, things have really started hopping on this remodel, which is being filmed by Magnetic Productions for the DIY Network show called Sweat Equity. I got a plan from the designer, did extensive "before" video interviews with my husband, got feedback on our house from a real estate agent and Sweat Equity's host, Amy Matthews, and with some friends, demolished ...
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Is it a happy ending? God knows I've had my doubts in the seven weeks of this studio remodel - deep, dark, existential doubts. It's a good thing I'm not in the construction trades; I now understand the reputed love of beer among tradespeople. I'd be in AA in a month if I had to do another fast-track project.
But we did get it done. The last five days were a blur of hardware-store trips (get the pointy screws; no, the blunt screws; no, the anchors; call me back, the ceiling guy is on the other line), Ikea treks, exasperated searches ...
Extra
One of the first things my friend Jill, an artist and long-time ACC member, told me after I got this job was that I needed to get into a hot shop - asap - and see glass artists in action. It's unlike anything else, she said. You've got to do it.
The good people at Tacoma's Museum of Glass clearly feel the same way. Their hot shop is open to the public - and there's a live video feed. You can even type in questions for the emcee. (Could there be a better use of the internet?)
This ...
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500 artists participate in AAW, including potters, tile makers, painters, sculptors, musicians, photographers, glass blowers, printmakers, and textile designers. They showcase their art in warehouses, galleries, homes, storefronts and cafes. ...
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Rock River Artists are a collaborative of 18 professional artists residing along the Rock River basin in Southern Vermont. They work in a variety of disciplines and mediums, from oil paintings to pottery to custom furniture. Once a year, the Rock River Artists open their studios for a weekend-long tour, inviting visitors into their homes and creative spaces to view and purchase artwork and interact directly with the artists. ...
Books
There's a lot to love about visiting creative people's spaces: At its best, a studio tour is a chance to meet artists, preview works in progress, even gather inspiration on décor and organization. In her new book Open Studios, Brooklyn-based designer Lotta Jansdotter grants us admission into some spaces we might never otherwise visit.
A departure from the author's usual how-to volumes, Open Studios explores 24 artist and designer ateliers in Brooklyn, Tokyo, and Jansdotter's native Stockholm. She gives us a curated selection of artists (some of them friends) who work in ceramics, jewelry, textiles, photography, graphic design, and other creative ...
Books
Last week's headline was "We're Talking Highs, We're Talking Lows." But had I been completely honest, I wouldn't have cited any highs. I felt pretty bleak as I blogged last week: We had little more than two weeks left, and no apparent way to fix the ceiling grid to finish installing the ceiling and the electrical, while passing electrical inspection. We'd ordered some expensive floor tiles, but the store messed up and delivered the wrong ones. And the one thing I wanted out of this room design seemed completely out of reach. I wanted one of those sliding modern "barn ...
Books
Remodeling my art studio has been an exercise in emotional whiplash.
Sure, there are fun moments - as when I'm shopping for doors with my friend Joanne, a sunny person with a long list of home-improvement projects under her tool belt. Or when the TV crew takes over our house for a morning, filling it with banter and gear and snacks.
Then there are the downers - as when the electrician calls to say the soffit we built and ceiling grid we laboriously installed need to be redone to meet code. This setback stops me cold; he may as well have hit ...
Books
This is the first day of the rest of my life. And, as it turns out, part of my new life will take place in a much nicer studio space than I have now.
How come I'm getting a new studio? A few months ago, on a lark, I entered one of those cable-TV home makeover show contests, and - to my surprise - I won. (I won't disclose the name of the show or the network until the producers give me the OK.)
The network will give me a design plan, some products, and a few thousand dollars, which should be ...
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