Once upon a time I had a studio, a magical place filled with light from four skylights and three walls of windows. The fourth wall was the painting wall, the place where I hung boards and canvasses at whatever height that worked best–hung ’em high when working on the lower half of a painting, hung ’em low when working on the top. Paint would drip down the wall, onto the concrete floor because, gravity, y’know.
It was my happy place, a place where I painted, played loud music along with a mean air guitar. At the end of the day I shut the door on the mess and walked away.
I shut the door for the last time earlier this summer.
It was late July if I remember right, maybe early August. We sold our house, the one we built 30 years ago, raised our kids in and thought we’d be in forever. It sold in less than a week to some lovely ladies who will put their own mark on things, making this place their own. They let me take my time packing up the studio. They’re cleaning it up now and repurposing it as a guest cottage.
And I’m 100% okay with that. Because my head is all about designing the next house, the next studio.
Mr. Spouse is already in Washington building the ADU, the cottage we’ll live in up there while we build the house-house. The one with the killer view.
Meanwhile, I’m renting back the granny unit on the property that we just sold. Living in this cottage is like moving back home. We lived in it years ago when our kids were small and we were building the the big house. After that Mama moved in, living here for seven years until it was time for her to shuffle off and float away with Jesus. She’d be thrilled to know I was living in ‘her’ house now. And that I’m still lugging around that damn cherry hutch that I don’t want but am too guilt ridden to get rid of because she loved it so.
Her presence is definitely felt here in this house. I’m half expecting her to come up behind me offering me some salted nuts. Or an Ambien.
So it’s not like we pulled up stakes entirely. Living in the cottage is giving me the time and space I need to let go, to detach from the place we jokingly referred to as the Porterosa.
I still walk the same trails with Maggie, still hang with my friends and work in the gallery. And I’m still painting. My current studio is a couple of tables outside under the trees. It’ll do while the weather’s ok. And when winter comes I’ll figure something else out.
You can take the girl out of the studio but you can’t take the art out of the girl.
There’s been an unexpected bonus from all of this–a huge burst of creativity. New energy, New work. And some new ideas for teaching. It’s all about moving forward, not looking behind.
I’d love to hear from you friends in the comments below. And if you want to keep up with what’s going on sign up for my list here.
As always, thanks for stopping by!
BTW local peeps, you can see me during Open Studios this month (October 12, 13 & 19, 20) Since I don’t have a studio of my own anymore I’ll be in Alta Sierra at Studio # 6 along with a whole bunch of other artists. Gonna be a good time at Studio #6! You can download the map here.
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