Studio 4A, RIP

• September 9th, 2006 • 1 Comments • photo, studio 4A •

Well, with the help of my husband and one of his buddies, I cleaned out the straggling dregs of the garage Friday night. There it stands, a gaping hole. Well, almost gaping. That pile in the back is a sculpture that I couldn’t ever finish called “Spindle.” It hung on like one of those cuts on your cheek: annoying and painful. So, I dragged it unceremoniously to the compactor and pressed the button until I could no longer hear the wood cracking and smashing the damn thing to bits.We actually started on Thursday night. The moment I stepped foot in the studio, I could feel tears coming on. Michael seemed to sense this and handed me my pick-axe and asked if I wanted to smash the two desks we had to move rather than find a new home for them. Senseless destruction helped to vent my anger and frustration as well as get rid of two large pieces of furniture that could previously not fit into the compactor. That, and there’s a sense of juvenile satisfaction to be had in leaving tiny pieces of wood and screws all over the parking lot. Bah. Take that apartment management.

Hell, I shouldn’t be so mopey about it, but it’s one of those “principle” things I like to hold a long-standing grudge about. So long, Studio 4A. I suppose now I’m in “Studio Guest Bathroom” until we buy our new house. Phooey.

 

Pain and Anguish!

• July 2nd, 2006 • 0 Comments • meandering, studio 4A •

The studio is almost cleared out, save items which I am going to store in the garage of a generous friend. I am dragging my feet getting the whole thing over with: 1) this whole ordeal is depressing me more than it should and 2) I have a mysterious back injury which prevents me from picking things up.

Figuring I’m only in my mid-20s, this back problem thing falls into the very “not good” category. It surfaced the morning before I had an enormous face-painting job at a convention in Dallas. A slew of doctors’ visits and drugs have followed, seriously putting me in the mood for doing nothing but lying down on the couch feeling sorry for myself.

I did, however make a spiffy-cool stencil and put it on a t-shirt, which has inspired a number of tutorials and write-ups I hope to do. The guest bathroom has been reformatted into a tiny studio I work out of much to the discomfort of my husband’s friends! No doubt an obituary for Studio 4A complete with photos will be posted as soon as I find some persons to help me bulldoze out the remainder of the garage, as the August deadline grows uncomfortably close.

I could really do without the inconvenience of a painful mystery injury right now.

 

Boxes Upon Boxes

• May 29th, 2006 • 2 Comments • cleaning, studio 4A •

My husband and I cleaned out the storage closet that is supposed to house most of the studio’s supplies this weekend. It looks painfully small; I couldn’t help dragging my feet when I went down to the studio garage to start sorting out what gets packed and what gets semi-packed (so I can continue to use contents within). The whole month has proved a bit frustrating as I have produced almost no art. Making money to eat has taken precedent over making art; and annoying waves of melancholy idiocy keep washing over regards the studio’s demise.

However, I am a little excited about my supplies being moved closer to the computer. Yes, yes, I wrote a while back about how I liked space between my fine art and my computer. Things have changed a bit; I use the computer more for producing bits and pieces to use in my art. While it still remains true that the computer is not an idea machine, but rather a tool, we’ve wormed out more of a relationship that doesn’t interfere with creative development.

Oh I’m also excited about a FRESH WATER SOURCE. Remember the sink? Apparently the reservoir makes a wonderful swimming pool for cockroaches. Except they can’t get out. So they drown. And decompose. In the reservoir. Gross. You can imagine my delight when I cranked the faucet after being away from the studio in lieu of student teaching only to have a variety of roach bits come pouring out with the water. Now I have a bathtub with a pimp hose hookup with which to rinse out all sorts of things. Oh yeah, the new pressure nozzle is great for filling up waterballoons. As a second-floor resident I feel obligated to have a stock of bombs to drop on my husband’s friends.

Running for my life after dousing unsuspecting guests ought to chase away the “I ain’t got no studio blues.”

 

Project: Shrink Studio

• May 16th, 2006 • 0 Comments • studio 4A •

Well well well. I did some measuring in the studio: a chalk square that is 15ft x 6ft now engulfs most of the room. When a problem is physically laid out in front of your eyes, it helps to solidify what will happen. Studio 4A, I think, is going to have to be moved completely out of the garage, and I will stop paying rent on the whole place. As much as I loathe them, it almost seems prudent to use one of these:

I’m not at all excited about the prospect of downsizing so that I can’t do anything large or messy for an entire year. However, this does give me the opportunity to organize the entire place in preparation for the massive move out of the apartment. Planning out my dream garage is a project worthy of a year of planning!

I suppose updates will be sparse until I come up with a good plan of action. August deadline looms!

 

Moping

• April 25th, 2006 • 0 Comments • studio 4A •

I swore I’d never be mopey on the studio blog, but I can’t help it. Michael and I talked in depth about what to do concerning the studio last night. There are several options, but I’m not happy with the one that is most-likely.

1) Find out why there is a problem with having an art studio in an apartment garage. I pay money, why should they care? Fight the damn problem. Pro: I get my way. Con: We rock the boat, the manager ‘blacklists’ us within the complex making for a miserable living experience the next year.

2) Move out when the lease is up. Pro: We move into a rent house with cheaper rent and whee! I get a huge-ass garage to muddle around in. Con: It’s MOVING (do you know how much our cumulative crap is?). We were gonna move out in another year into our OWN house. Our first purchased house together.

3) Move out MOST of the studio junk so I can park my car inside, thereby rendering the studio an official car-hole, with stuff stored next to the parking space. Pro: I get rid of a bunch of junk I needed to get rid of anyway, thereby preempting a major clean-out which will come when we move out in a year. Con: Great. There’s a freakin’ CAR parked in the middle of the studio.

Number three is the most likely, just because moving out a year early is kind of a silly thing to do, and there is no where to PUT the stuff. Yes, my car will be all safe in its new home, but most studio activity will have to take place in the bathroom. Ug ug and double ug. I am a mopey artist, except now I don’t have a studio to mope in. I’ll have to mope up where the computer is and pester my husband. Maybe I’ll start wearing black and doing dreary paintings about how bleak and hopeless the world is…

 

Is the end near?

• April 24th, 2006 • 0 Comments • studio 4A •

Uh oh! I mentioned earlier that the apartment complex was threatening the studio. I spoke with an agent and everything seemed in the clear, though she seemed inclined to tip-toe around mentioning it to the owner. Well wouldncha know it, when I was opening the garage this evening the owner herself was strolling by.

Busted.

Long story short, she said that I could keep my stuff where it is until the lease is up. My husband and I are not happy about this, as we were expecting to stay at least another year. And just when I cleaned the studio all spic and span for the summertime! Ultimately, this will probably be the demise of 4A, but the birth of a new studio, wherever it may be.

 

Spring Cleaning

• April 21st, 2006 • 0 Comments • experiments, studio 4A •

Ahhhh. The studio is finally clean and organized. It’s pretty much been a disaster area since last summer, when I helped my parents move out of their house of 20+ years. In the final days of packing, a lot of items were moved to my garage temporarily. There is some corollary of Parkinson’s Law that states something to the effect of: stuff will multiply such that it fills all available space, irrespective of how much stuff or space there is. I think this is even more true when someone moves. Soon after my parents moved, I started student teaching and the studio was all but forgotten as it was filled to the brim with boxes and whatnot. Immediately after student teaching came the holidays, during which I was planning a wedding! The weather lately has been most conducive to being outside so FINALLY, 4A is clean.

Good thing, too! I’ve had a few projects brewing in my brain so having some working space will do me just fine. One of my projects I’m not sure what to do with, though. I had a plot to cut up some of the many many circuit-boards and computer parts in attempt to make jewelry. Cutting up a video card was fairly difficult with the Dremel; the cutting wheel protested several points and I dared not cut though anything other than board as I was unsure as to the contents of those little transistor-looking things. (That’s a technical term.) This endeavor made a helluva mess! There was powder everywhere, and it did not like being swept up. (Yes, I was wearing a respirator and goggles!) A little too late I found a source saying what’s actually in those circuit boards.

Printed Circuit Boards contain heavy metals such as Antimony, Silver, Chromium, Zinc, Lead, Tin and Copper. According to some estimates there is hardly any other product for which the sum of the environmental impacts of raw material, extraction, industrial, refining and production, use and disposal is so extensive as for printed circuit boards. Exerpt from The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition

Whooooa nelly! Take a look at some of the lists on that site for all the nasty things in there! No way in hell I’m setting the Dremel loose on ‘em now; heck, I would feel bad about simply hucking my piles of parts into the trash as well. Their purpose has been for making wearables for so long, I can’t get my mind to thinking about something else; I’ll have to grind the ol’ clutch on this one.

 

Drama!

• January 26th, 2006 • 3 Comments • studio 4A •

Oh dear.

The apartment complex I currently live in put up a notice today about parking stickers they are issuing. (Good news! The lots are overcrowded when kids have parties.) The BAD news is the little addendum they added at the bottom:

Garages are for operable vehicles only. If you are currently using your garage for anything other than parking you operable vehicle, please accept this as a notice to clean it out by February 19, 2006.

Nooooooo! This is obviously terrible: my garage studio (while filled with many useful objects) does not contain my “operable vehicle,” or anything that could be considered one. I ran down to the front office to beg for an exclusion as soon as the note was posted on my door. One of the ladies is incredibly nice, and said that she had thought of me when the announcement was typed out. She offered several solutions, but ultimately the decision rests upon the manager. It helps that there are several long-time residents that have used their garage for a shop or storage and will be mighty upset if they have to give up their garages. Sadly all I can do at this point is wait for the lady I spoke with to talk with the manager and tell me what’s up.

My whole day was just pooped upon. I was going to go down to the studio and give it a good tidying and set-up for several new projects, but no! Now I have to worry about the very survival of my studio space. What the hell will I do with all the equipment down there if a bad decision comes down the line? I don’t know; I’ll just stick with that ol’ saying: prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

 

The Old Lady Factor

• September 5th, 2005 • 0 Comments • meandering, studio 4A, supplies •

Ohboyohboy! My parents decided that they no longer needed their old Xerox machine, and you know what that means! Yes! Printmaking with toner and acetone! Huzzah! I’ve avoided copy-machine prints for a while now simply because I can’t afford the many trips to the store. Now there is convenience inside my house, at my fingertips even.

Only problem is I’m completely overwhelmed with ideas. Where to start?!

I know where: CLEANING THE STUDIO. In addition to being overwhelmed with ideas, I’m overwhelmed with a complete mess. Frankly, the entire garage needs to be rearranged. The weather has cooled off a bit, but not enough for such an all-day project. Looking back in the almanac, the average daily temperature for this month last summer was 89 degrees, whereas this year is 95 degrees. Either I’m in for a mild winter or an ironically cold one, preventing me from wanting to even leave my bed, much less the apartment for the studio.

Problem number one cluttering up the studio is, well, art. I am in desperate need of a show. Desperate.. Admittedly I have been out of college for an entire year and have had plenty of time to find a nice local art association to join. My problem? “The Old Lady Factor.” What might that be, you ask. See, I’ve noticed that several of the local (by local, I mean metroplex) art organizations suffer from an influx of older women and men producing hotel art. There’s nothing wrong with hotel art, it’s just, kinda dry and not what I do. While browsing the websites, 95% of the art showcased is of puppies ‘n’ kittens, peaceful country meadows and fruit in bowls. I can clearly recall entering a piece into a local art organization: I saw at least 5 people walk in with gold-leafed art from the 80s. You know what I mean. Needless to say, I did not even make it into the show.

By no means do I make the claim that my art is so fantastically different that I am having a hard time finding an organization in which I can find peers. But I do think that when looking for an art organization, one looks for similar interests. For instance, another local organization told me on its web-page that it doesn’t allow: anything not entirely two-dimensional, photography, digital works or nudes. Er, really. That limits me a bit.

This leaves two possibilities: shut up and join, or follow suit of my high-school self and start my own organization!

 

Picture Time!

• May 6th, 2005 • 0 Comments • papermaking, photo, studio 4A •

What I wouldn’t give for a good ventilation system.

Gahh, there was a minor oopsy when I came in this evening; I forgot I hadn’t fixed a leg on that desk, so the weight of my pulp bin seems to have slooowly pulled it down. I’m surprised it didn’t fall over entirely, which would have left dried paper pulp everywhere. How precarious!

Shellac-ing the paper I’ve been making. This sheet has a hole in it that the shellac has frozen in time. It’s quite beautiful the way it moves in the light, especially with fresh shellac on it. This is the third coat being applied to this sheet.

This sheet is receiving a brand new coat of shellac, as it finished drying a few days ago. Uncoated paper is amazingly absorbent. I need to buy a beater.

Satisfying more of my own photoegotism with a self-portrait. To the left you can see Spindle; behind me is my wiener dog screen I can’t bring myself to wash out. I’m getting too much milage out of it!