Heaven On Earth On My Shoes

Earlier this week I got an invite from my newlywed friends to be part of their house painting party, the lure being free donuts, pizza, and beer. Those happen to be 3 of my 4 major food groups, so how could I say no? But before I could go there today I had to take care of a few errands, including picking up my piece from the Belmar show, and my latest batch of slides a few blocks away. By the time I got to the party the donuts were gone, but I was just in time for the other items, and the pizza was the best I had this week. To earn my lunch I was assigned to the crew painting the second bedroom, covering over a mustardy brown color with a light blue called "Heaven on Earth". Looked much better after we were done.

The whole thing reminded me that it is exactly one year since we began fixing up the Studio. While our rent began on April 1, the landlord had let us start storing things there a few weeks earlier, and on March 30 I bought the first of many loads of lumber. The top two photos show the room as it looked originally- white walls except for the dark green paint on the floor, and the only furniture that one desk. That desk proved to be very useful, as I used its flat top as a base to build all the rest of the furniture. First was my work table, the dark wood one seen in many of these postings. Next was the cabinet units. Each has a laminated top salvaged from a counter/shelf unit that I dismantled behind the bookstore that was disposing of it. The one with the white doors includes large shelves for big print paper, storage for inks, a large glass ink palette, and Molly's hotplate. The other is open shelves for various supplies. Next came two large work tables mostly to be used by Molly and the print classes. My last construction project was my personal cabinet and inking station, on wheels so I can use it anywhere in the Studio.

Meanwhile we had to deal with the painting. The white walls were dull, made it feel like we were stuck in a basement. I talked Molly into the idea of color, gathered the paint chip cards, and sat down with her to pick out what we would use and where. From my list of suggested colors she chose the orange-red, yellow, and green that would be used for walls and trim. She used the leftover paint to do the cabinets (red) and work tables (yellow with red and green trim). As you can see, 4 gallons of housepaint made a huge difference. It's still a basement, but now a warm, inviting space. I hate to go home at the end of the day.

By the way, if you enjoyed these before and after shots of my Studio, you should check out the website for Tugboat Printshop in Pittsburgh. Two print artists have rehabilitated a house into what looks to be a really nice work space for themselves and guest artists. The site includes extensive photos of their rennovations, as well as lots of the artists' work.