Beautiful light but…
Photo of K-space side of our studio taken in 2017.
Setting up for an open studio event in our K-space side in 2022.
I found the top snapshot of what my side of our studio space looked like back in 2017. Oddball spaces and awkward partition walls made it challenging for visitors who walked up the 19 stairs to fully experience our work. I took this picture while I was setting up for a workshop many moons ago. Although our space had great bones, from the funky corners to the fantastic light coming from the generous windows, it really lacked functionality for what our business had become.
When Sam and I first moved into this space, I had a thriving print design studio with multiple people working with me. It took all of our savings and a lot of creative financing to move into our new digs. That was July of 2001 and then 9/11 happened. It was a crazy time with the world going mad and my design projects either outright cancelled or put on hold until things went back to “normal”. Fast forward to when this picture was taken, I had completely changed my business…my time was split between graphic design, art-making and raising two boys.
Shortly after the top photo was taken, the roof –which had always been a bit dodgy–started leaking every time it rained. By the end of its last season it took 13 buckets to keep the water from destroying everything. Sections of the floor had become so soft we were afraid to walk on them. We were covering up holes with duck tape like idiots. The goofy, oddball feel of the space had taken a turn to the macabre with nightmares of the floor caving-in. Somehow in my dreams I was alway stuck dangling from the drawers of my flat files over this dark abyss of water, smashed IKEA furniture and pantone color books.
Everything we wanted to do in this space meant we had to invest in the structure of our creative habitat. It only took 3 months but It was an odyssey trying to work in a place that was having the floors ripped out beneath us. And like so many basic structures of life, the repairs were expensive and time-consuming…definitely not fun or sexy. You can’t really invite people over to show-off your new membrane roof. In the end it was worth it. For more than 20 years this place has sheltered our business and helped fostered our creativity, And I learned a lot about this 100 year old building in the heart of a thriving main street. The bottom photo shows what our space looks like currently…same funky corners, same beautiful light but much more confident that it’s not going to rain on my art.