Studio

Tools of the Trade

Excepting the installation of one last door, Carol's studio is finally finished. What was previously a cold, dark, gray, mouse-infested (seriously) unfinished basement, frequently dubbed 'The Pit of Despair'* is now a bright, white refuge.

'Reactor'

My role in this was exceeding limited due to my new job. All the credit goes to Carol's parents. Her dad Al did almost all the work himself, his skills as a finish carpenter, house builder, electrician, and all-around self-sufficient New Englander meant that he was a one man crew. Faced with tasks where I would be scouring the yellow pages, checkbook in hand, he just builds it. Carol's mom Mary did most of the painting and applied her peerless filth eradication skills on the hapless piles of refuse that dared get in her way. Dirt stands about as much of a chance against her as a drunken Al-Qaeda cell does against a Navy Seal strike team.

Clean...but for how long?

Of course now the hard part begins, the actual painting. With a solo show coming up at judi rotenberg in June there is still much work to be done. I used to imagine painting was a relaxing pastime. And it may be if you are simply doing it for your own satisfaction, but for those doing it professionally it looks to me an awful lot like a grueling job with low pay, no benefits, and dirty clothes. For any aspiring artists out there I only have one bit of advice: Go into accounting :-)

Normally the X-Acto knife would be on the floor surrounded by a perimeter of upturned tacks.

ptb

* Yes I know now who Harry Harlow is, and the origins of the term, and I would not have used it so cavalierly in the past had I known, but it is what we called it.