It feels like I've had my Studio in so many different places over the years. The last place mentioned in this blog (in 2018) was at the Concord Community Arts Center on Thorndike Street (in Concord, NH). By 2019, I had moved it back to my home - new paint, lighting, signs, and lots of great plans! Then WHAM! Covid.
Between then, and now, I applied and was accepted at the Western Avenue Studios and Lofts in Lowell, MA (and waitlisted forever). I also looked at spaces in New London, Penacook, Pembroke, Main Street in Concord, Dover, and Portsmouth. I had pretty much given up when, after an appointment in The Brookside Building in Warner, I saw the door open to a very cute bagmaker's studio/shop and made instant friends with its owner, Stephanie Flanders. She mentioned the front studio space was empty and I immediately contacted the landlord for a visit!
It was a pretty big leap of faith to sign a year's lease with absolutely no plan... but I really needed an excuse to leave the house, and a place to go. Looking back, it was the best thing I could have done. My Grand Opening was a total bust - no one came - but it was also one of my best Open Studios ever. The three of us who have our businesses on the first floor, and our names all start with "S", sat out in the hall chatting for three hours before we realized that no one had come and it was after closing time. We had been laughing so hard and munching on Lindt chocolates... what more could I have asked for!?
So what's the Plan? I'm still working on that, but my top priority is to give myself a place to focus on only my art, no grown up house stuff (my house is a disaster right now), and give me and Elsa Bear the chance to work on our social skills and confidence. Make all kinds of art. My art, not freelance.
The second Priority is to build my Art Tribe from scratch - with workshops, open studios, and play days. I can't be the only person who is dying from loneliness - anyone else out there want to draw and color with me?
