Back to Business

I've stopped by the Studio several times in the last month, mostly to check on the progress of things in and around the building.  Pretty much nothing happened through the first two months of the year, and then we had the combination of the flat file donation and the flood, both of which contributed to another idle month.  But over the last week or so things have started to turn around, and I went there today with the intention of actually doing something.

Building management was there today, so I took care of a minor task, getting rid of some old chairs.  A few weeks ago I had Brendan mark a few for eventual removal, but they were still there on my last visit.  So my first job today was to take them to the back door area (above) where garbage is stored until it is hauled to the outdoor dumpster.  Those chairs looked considerably better when I found them at a garage sale, and they still would function as chairs,  but the backs have been disintegrating for years, so this seems a good time to get rid of them.  One odd thing- there were four, but I could only find three in our room.  Maybe his work crew had taken one out already.

As I was moving chairs through the halls, I met our new neighbor, a local painter who has taken over our former table shop.  The familiar folding plastic tables were in there, but now would be used to help her hold painting classes.  I wished her good luck with her plans, as well as surviving the noise from the music/voice studio just above.

The biggest difference is that the flat file parts are now assembled up on the platform in the corner, and with all the other stuff that had to be thrown away, this is the emptiest this room has been in years.  There is still a bunch of clutter on most of the horizontal surfaces, but that just calls for Molly getting some boxes or plastic storage bins and gathering it all up.

The one work surface that was relatively easy to use today was my work table, now cleared of the Molly stuff that had been stacked there by the cleaning crew, and my oversized foam core and mat board.  I didn't need much of the table top today, just enough to do a little framing.  It has been my plan to frame the original print I made for the train show postcard, and make it available as a fund raising prize for the show, such as door prize, or a raffle or something.  Since I don't want to spend a lot of money on a donation, I figured I'd just get a cheap frame at a dollar store, but I hadn't liked any I had seen so far.  Then some artist was cleaning out his studio and decided to drop off at the Boatworks a whole bunch of frames, framed art, illustration and mat board, etc.  It was all put up for grabs, so I grabbed some things I could use for school, and a frame for my train print.  I brought that frame and my print to the Studio today to swap it out.  I removed the previous "art" (oversized photo printed by Staples and scotch taped to the back of the mat), and mounted my print with linen tape hinges.  Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring my chop mark stamp, so the final assembly will be done later.