organize my studio

to really understand the progress being made, i suppose pictures would be necessary.

all in all, though, great progress has been made. i have even been able to WORK in there for the past four days.

ecstatic-getting-stuff-done dance

I live in a 2-bedroom apartment by myself. I originally wanted to use the second bedroom as a studio. I have since decided I want a roommate (out of sheer boredom) so until then the second bedroom will be a guest space. My bedroom is HUGE so I have moved everything crafty and artsy into that room. Now I just have to organize this enormous mess I’ve made!!

I have a small room off to the side of my bedroom. I plan to use it as an office/studio for the production of small drawings, sculptures and paintings. Right now its a total mess… full of random supplies and materials. I keep putting off organizing it… Well perhaps I can whip it into shape over the next day or two!

I was working on organizing my studio space, and then the basement flooded. The good news is that there was less to clean up since I had been working on the space already, but the bad news is that there was still a lot of crap in the basement to deal with – soggy furniture, soggy boxes, mildew, ruined artwork. It is depressing as hell, to even go down there let alone create art in that environment. I did get major help from the kids, however, and it only cost me frozen pizza and all the change that came out of the soggy couch. This is definitely one of those times it feels overwhelming and lonely to be a single mom.
Another project that has taken forever is hanging cabinets in my studio. I went to home depot to rent a tool to drill holes in the cement wall, and they gave me a gun (!) complete with gunpowder charges to shoot nails in the wall. It was effectively intimidating and really quite cool, but it didn’t work.
The next tool that I rented was a percussive drill. Four hours and four holes later I gave up on the drill. I was imagining paying someone to drill a hole an hour, and decided that this was really not the tool that a professional hole driller would use!
The next tool I rented was a giant hammer drill with a bit at least a foot long. The tool rental guy (why is it always a guy?) said that the first tools were not the right ones.”That will never work for drilling into concrete…..You’ll burn out the motor using that!” He assured me that tool number three would work. What happened to “you can do it, we can help”? I thought I was going to cry at home depot, I was so frustrated. Maybe the “we can help” should refer to an in-store therapist specializing in construction issues! I needed one.
The final outcome is that though the basement smells pretty musty, there is a lot less stuff to contend with, tool number three worked, and I may have a somewhat workable space if I work at it diligently for another week.
Progress like a glacier – It doesn’t feel like you’re getting anywhere, but when you look back you actually are going somewhere, if only downhill!

I cleaned a little more – it is now more functional

It’s getting there. I think, think, think I don’t want it to be a studio anymore. I want it to be an aerobics room. I don’t know for sure. I got rid to a ton, of crap. WHy do I have two broken sewing machines, that I pulled out of the trash???

God help me!

I’m making a dent on the junk. Things are moving. It’s shaping up.

i worked on this a little this past weekend. i’m still unpacking so i put some books on my new shelves from ikea. my next big thing is to pull all my boxes of different media and shelve it. i also am looking forward to painting this summer.

It’s a mess – what can I say? Problem is, I don’t want to get rid of anything in there. I see it all as having a use, some time. This pic, BTW, was taken after I straightened up this particular corner.

this month my boyfriend helped me out by hanging the cabinets and one of the shelves. i put lots of things up on the walls and it finally looks like a room that i want to spend time in! some friends stayed over and we used it as a guest room, so now i just have to find somewhere to store the futon/bedding. then i can organize all of my fabric and get rid of any extra boxes. that will be a day’s work, and then it will be done. for now, at least :) good thing, too, i have a craft show coming up!