Starting Over: Creating a New Studio

My first glimpse at the new space. Man, it needed work!

My newest studio here at The Dow has been hard-won.

When I first toured the space, it was in need of a lot of work. A LOT. It looked a bit like a hurricane survivor. But I loved the location (close to home, finally) the light (look at those huge east-facing windows!) and the fact that it was a gritty artist-focused warehouse (did I mention the grit?!?) Yes, it had all of the things I wanted.  What it also had was a huge honeydew list of repairs and renovations. All of my previous buildings had taken care of the basics before I moved in, but this space was different. It was all on the tenant, with the exception of fixing a few broken panes of glass. 

Which was just fine by me.  I loved the space, the location, and the building owner/manger was great. I’m no stranger to hard work, although it’s been a minute since I had to do this much repair & construction. Getting the space in shape took all of last summer and into the fall.  I was doing most of the work on my own and I couldn’t do it every day. Plus, over the summer the space just baked! (Note to self: I might have to consider an air conditioner for this next summer.) I have never sweated so much in my life. Bikram yoga has NOTHING on my studio! Climbing up on a ladder to reach the 12 foot ceilings was serious business, and I constantly had to monitor myself for heat exhaustion. Most days I just worked in lightweight shorts and a sports bra. At the end of a day of work I look like I had fallen in a swimming pool. No joke. I was drenched.

The raw space. Yes, that dangling extension cord was the only power source in this corner of the room. Yes, those black broken squares are “windows”.

Looking at my doorway post-cleaning, but before any real work had begun.

The same view several months later, just before move-in.

It began by cleaning the 30-year-old dust/soot/grease/sawdust from the tops of all the ceiling pipes. Then repairs of a sort. Some plywood was attached to the walls, that needed to go. A long tabletop was built into one of the walls, that needed removal. The loft needed some attention and a top section removed. Thanks to my husband and son for helping with the demolition on that.

There was a rather large gap along the ceiling and around the cement posts that let ALL the noise from the neighbors’ studios straight in. And I assume it let them hear me, too. Sorry for what I said when I hit my thumb with a hammer. My awesome handyman neighbor Charlie helped get some simple boards up as “ceiling molding” and they worked beautifully.  I needed function, not fancy. 

Charlie helping with the ceiling gaps.

Wow, if you think this door is bad, you should see it from the other side!

The bricks before and after. My prowess with a tiny brass bristle brush would’ve made any drill sergeant proud.

The doorway was missing some sheetrock along one side and it had no molding.  I have to give myself a hearty pat on the back for this one, it came out lovely. It’s amazing what you can do with a few quick YouTube video tutorials.  

Next came mudding and taping the 12 foot walls. The 30-year-old drywall was really beat up and still raw. I think I spent the better part of a week just mudding over all those nicks and dents alone. It took longer than expected, and it’s far from perfect, but I finally got it to an acceptable degree of smoothness.  The brick wall is such a cool part of the studio, but it had, you guessed it, 30 years or more of scale and crust on it. I used a brass bristle brush to clean that up, and the pile of crud and debris made actual dunes under my windows. Thank goodness I had an overabundance of those damn N95’s on hand to keep myself safe. 

Now for the fun part- picking out paint!

Yeah, I get fussy over paint colors. I must have had a dozen and a half sample cards just with shades of white to find the perfect color. Not pure white, but not far from it; it can’t be too pink, nor too yellow, nor too green- you get the point. The loft was a mix of raw and black wood, so finishing it all off in black was the answer. The bottom section of the cement posts was a very distracting shade of blue for me.  It looked cool on its own, and I’m sure someone out there is wishing I had kept it blue, but it would have influenced my paintings and I didn’t want that. A neutral environment is critical for me.  That way my art is free to establish its own color schemes without the distraction or influence of the studio. So I needed to cover that with something that didn’t shout. The door, however, could shout, and it needed to. It was beat up all to hell and looked like crap. I really should install a new one, but for now a bright color and some fresh hardware does the trick. It’s metal, so I can always attach a poster with magnets to hide the dents. 

Halfway through painting the radiators! I love the matte black.

The wall under the window had some great spray paint on it, which I felt needed to stay. It was really cool looking, but subtle enough that it wouldn’t get in the way.  However, it did have a few colors that I didn’t care for, so when I was finished with the door I used the last bits in the spray can to go over my least favorite hues. Now the wall felt more like “mine” as well as being more my taste. The radiators were another matter entirely. The paint was peeling and flaking in a most egregious manner and needed to be fixed up. Again with the brass brush, again with the N95. I had intended to paint them an almond color in the Rustoleum heat safe paint, but luckily that color wasn’t available anywhere in town. I settled for matte black, and you know, I like that much more. It picks up the black on the loft. 

Mudding and taping underway!

The first coats of paint are beginning to improve things…

Voila! We are now ready for move-in!

Lastly, the shop lights and ugly fluorescent fixtures came down. I hung up my old studio lights that have been in storage since moving out of Northrup King Building. One thing I WON’T do on my own is electric. This space is rather odd in the sense that most of its too-few outlets are controlled by the main on/off switch. And the ceiling lights were all plugged in to ceiling outlets rather than hardwired in. So I just got plug adapters for my tracks and that solved the problem for now. If anyone is or knows a good electrician, let me know. Currently (ha, get it?!?) I’m running extension cords everywhere to make up for the lack of outlets. Not the best solution, but it works for now.

So I was able to finally move in September of 2021.  Since then I’ve made it messy again, and it needs a good organizing soon.  It’s fixed up, but not too fixed. I feel like a studio that’s too clean is no place for creativity! The little “censor”, that negative voice in your head that always tells you your art isn’t good enough, etc, also loves to criticize your work flow. Don’t spill paint. Don’t splatter. Don’t make a mess.  Maybe some people can work “clean”, but I can’t. No matter how tidy I start, by the end my stuff is everywhere and it looks like a hurricane hit. So this studio is clean enough. It’s fixed enough. The slight imperfections of my work make it more “approachable” for me to really get down to work. If it were as perfect as a Parade of Homes dreamhouse I’d never get anything done.

Hurricane Angela. Yup. It feels like home.

What will become my painting corner.

My painting corner now, with just enough “grunge” to be comfy.