Monday, May 20, 2013

Tackling the Studio Part 2

After this particular discussion (in part 1) of the studio and my problem with staying focused to organize and not just "play" in it, The Husband and I devised a plan.

We have two friends (a married couple) always looking for fun odd jobs for a little extra cash. G (the husband in the pair) does work on our acreage from time to time and helps The Husband with fun stuff in our four bay working garage. K (the wife) is a feisty, tiny thing loads of fun to talk to and amazing at organizing just about anything. She, unlike me, is great at staying focused and keeping people motivated whilst helping then dig through their stuff.

We called up G and K and told them the dilemna. A couple of days later they came over and surveyed the task ahead.

"Wow!", said K. "I've never seen so much art stuff in any place other than an art supply store. Whoa!".

"Yep. I've got some ideas but as you can see I can work out here but only in a small portion right now. I just need a little help to stay focused and an opinion on how to put things in places so that people who come in here other than me can find supplies and work." I said.

K and I helped G and The Husband go back through what was lurking in the two overhead lofts in the studio. All the Christmas stuff * and other things that had been stacked there in an effort to give them shelter quickly when I moved in where removed and sent into available space in the middle garage bay. Then, they could be relocated to our rent house on the other side of town until needed during the holidays. K and I went thru the containers and reorganized by separating items to keep and items to sell or donate.

(* Special note: Christmas is BEYOND huge on my side of the family. I mean, it was a big deal for my inlaws, but my Mom turns into Martha Stewart right before Thanksgiving and is totally in her holiday - decorating - element around two weeks before Thanksgiving and until around January 3rd - ish. My husband and his family had a nice tree and some great traditions that they still carry on today. My Mom not only does amazing decor, but at one point we had a 13 foot tree AND 3 to 4 other trees. I'll get into our other traditions in another post, but I want to give you a "picture" of where I got my Christmas stuff/ habits from. I am not complaining, and I love my 5 trees, over 400 Hallmark ornaments and 100+ glass ornaments, but to an outsider it looks like way too much Christmas goodness).

Then G and The Husband went to the house to start putting together a new (IKEA! Yay!) bed while K and I began going through boxes of art supplies, art books, portfolios of art work, etc. and tossing useless things whilst boxing donations and taking items in that really were supposed to be in the house. My husband and I own well over 100 pieces of art and some of it was in the studio. We plan on rotating the art in our home much like a gallery, so hauling in some treasures helped to get the rotating started :) Pics to come soon :)

After 20 hours of work over two different days, K and I have the studio 85% done. She is amazing. She'll help me with the last portion and then G and The Husband will put in the insulation paneling. The electrical is already wired and I have light fixtures picked out so working anywhere within the space will be well lit and comfortable for all.

Pics to come very soon of the space along with before and after pics. The next step is to start the mural on the outside of one side of the studio and get the ball rolling for me to host private lessons and workshops in that space for my art students. :)

1 comment:

  1. Your studio space sounds like it is/will be wonderful! Glad to know I'm not the only one who gets overwhelmed with organizing projects...

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