Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The Studio (and Life) Marches On

Coffee in the Montreal mug, "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues (Dave's new Christmas anthem) on iTunes. Got the van unloaded yesterday and everything mostly stowed. It's a bit dismaying to realize that with all the space in the new studio there's still nowhere to put the show supplies (tents, pipe and drape poles, walls, shelving, lights, stands, etc.). As I was walking across the yard I thought about putting in another shed--this time there instead of in our backyard. Oy.

Yesterday was a studio-thinking day in other ways too. I had a conversation with the head of business development for our neighborhood association and Thursday evening I am going over to meet briefly with him, his wife, and a couple of newly-arrived-in-our-community lawyers who are also interested in developing the small businesses here. Unlike many neighborhoods, ours is a diverse and complicated little inner-city hood that consists of more than manicured lawns and two-car garages--in fact I'm not sure we have any manicured lawns and two-car garages. So the concerns of the association and its mandate also differ from the typical neighborhood/homeowner associations. We have businesses in our neighborhood--all around the new studio as a matter of fact--and helping direct what kind and how they grow is the provenance of the neighborhood association. I will need to get the studio property rezoned if I want to formally operate a gallery and teaching studio there, and meeting with the neighborhood association is the starting point for that long road.

Yesterday I also measured the kiln room for Bettina and there is no way the Olympic kiln with the measurements given is going to be doable. Yes, it would fit in the room, but there would only be a 1-1.5 foot walkway between her and Bertha. I am going to see about going out to Olympic tomorrow and looking at her in person to see if there is any way to adjust the width.

Today, however, is a Day Off (more or less). I do need to fuse a couple of pieces for orders that I need to ship this week from the One of a Kind Show and a gallery, but other than that I am spending the day with my mom and my daughter. Mom goes back home to Montana tomorrow so Jessie stayed home from school today to spend some time with her. We are going to make little Christmas ornaments for packages, decorate Jessie's tree (a little live Virginia pine that I am going to plant in the backyard in the spring), hunt for acorn caps for the little dolls I am going to try to make, and just hang together.

It's going to be 72 degrees here today and "White Christmas" covered by Rosemary Clooney is on iTunes... my live is just chock full of dichotomies.

5 comments:

Bill said...

Daytime temperatures here are in the sixties, the nighttime ones in the thirties. Happy holidays!

Dee said...

LOL i for one would LOVE a white christmas but then i have to admit i'm a tad strange that way hehehe i will never adjust to spring weather in dec!

enjoy your day with your mom and jessie ;)

i kinda wondered when you posted the space needed for bettina ;P good luck with that...
D

ren said...

"fairytale of new york" is my all time favorite christmas song...mostly because i am a horrible person, but really, who DOESN'T like to sing "you scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot, happy christmas yer arse, i pray god it's our last"? that just makes the holiday brighter for me.

Brenda Griffith said...

Ren, we have that song thanks to your Christmas cd from last year. And when I read your comment, I had to laugh and J asked what I was laughing at. When I said you wrote something funny on my blog she asked, "What was it, a fart joke?". My kid, your hero.

Anonymous said...

Hey what's wrong with manicured lawns and two car garages? OK so our lawn isn't manicured.... Anyway only kidding:-)