Saturday, January 19, 2008

constant juggling act


oh, if only you could see my house. if only i could find my digital camera during all my debris shifting..., i would show you.
you see, my house is under construction.

over the last six years i have had a studio in three different locations outside my home. before that i had my studio in my living room, which is crazy.
but, every one of the outside studios has had some different major reason for closure.

my first one was a converted office connected to my husband's law office (2001- 2004).
i eventually had to close that studio because i became sick... - i had contracted an autoimmune disorder that caused kidney failure -an acute ailment- i was bedridden for a year....eventually we closed it down, thinking i was never going to work again.

but i got better.

during the end of my convalescence, i began to paint larger canvases at home, in the dining room...
my artist friend, joan irving, invited me to join her studio in escondido. i thought about it for a year as escondido is far.
i did move nd worked there for a year until recently the studio was sold to the city.
meanwhile, during the last year, i began to publish more and needed to work smaller some days, so i got a studio close to home in a scrapbook store until it went under in october this year.

so what is wrong with working at home?
lots of things. first there are a million distractions - mostly household chores the urge you to act now rather than later. the laundry, dishes, folding clothes, ironing, telephone calls..... i have overcome this urge pretty well as my messy house can fairly attest. i never answer my phone.. and does anyone still iron clothes? but, there are other distractions too like, school visits, the dog needs to go in and out and in and out of the house some more, and the cat wants to paw my brushstrokes and walk across wet canvases.
anyway, you can see what i am saying.

but as bad as that is...i need a place that i own - a place that won't fold or sell to the city or go anywhere if i become ill..... so here i am again - back home.

BUT this time it's different. kathy olsen has helped me with a huge and focused undertaking. kathy came over earlier this
week and demolished the wall separating the kids bedrooms. don't worry i asked her to. and, i tried to help.

so we took down the wall and threw out bedroom furniture and all other creature comforts of the rooms, and replaced most if it with art supplies, paintings and books. a corner area has my easel; another corner has my office. there is a place for paints, papers and a staging area for me to get ready for workshops abroad. i'm very proud of our progress.

Questions:
what became of your children? oh, well, jamie lives in santa barbara now, so i took his room and rosie moved into the guest room, so i took her room too.

the guests, the british, where will they stay?
they can still have the guest room as rosie can sleep upstairs with us or in my studio since i won't be working while i have guests.

and what about your husband and the pets? well, they are still here. somewhere.
my husband did finally ask me yesterday if i was thinking of putting my studio in our house........i guess he isn't really aware of what i get up to - so i showed him that the dividing bedroom wall was down and thrown out. i guess he didn't notice the 80 black bags of stuff in the garbage outside or all the bedroom furniture waiting for pick-up out there either. the garbage pick-up is only right by where he parks his car....... hmmmmmm.
you can't blame him for asking such a question, for the past 8 years or so since kathy and i met, we have always been getting up to crazy stuff - how was he to know there was a wall missing.
the other nutty thing is, kathy, a very high energy person, came over a few days this week early -- like 9 a.m. - before i was fully awake. my husband let her in the house via the intercom system while he remained upstairs getting ready for work. once inside the house, kathy got straight to work hammering up pegboards, vacuuming or otherwise making herself useful.....he didn't seem to think this odd.
oh, well, men.

so. i have high hopes that the new, permanent studio will be completed next week. i have deliberately forbidden myself to do anything art wise until i have finished getting organized. it is very hard to hold off as i have the constant urge to just sit down and create instead of haul crap out. once i have my place squared away, i plan to have an open house. i better tell my husband first.

if he would only read my blog, he might know a thing or two.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Momma, well, I guess now I know why you haven't been online or answering your phone. I guess I can stop worrying now! I love you.

Lisa Bebi said...

OOOOOh i'm sorry brookie poo--momma's just a bit busy right now playing in her new studio...i will try to remember to bring in my cellphone and to charge the batteries so that i can talk to you.

i miss you.

i love you too. oxoxoxoxox

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