Resurfacing

So I've been in Lowell nearly 6 months and life is finally returning to something like normal. Is it the new normal? The move ended up being tough because I was out of town two weekends in a row prior to the move and sure enough the night before I found myself up at 4 in the morning giving up on packing the kitchen. I ended up finishing the move the following weekend. But at least with what did get moved, the movers were great. They even came in under the estimate. I was worried about them having to deal with the stairs at the new place, but it wasn't a problem at all.

What ate up my summer was getting the place into liveable condition. Though everything was brand new, the floor was coated in some kind of weird rusty dust. It was drywall dust, but there were other things in it. Sweeping did virtually nothing. Vacuuming was laughable. The only thing that worked was scrub-scrub-scrubbing. I didn't have a shopvac so I just mopped it all up with big sponges. Had I not already moved in I would have stripped it with an acid wash. Because while the paint I used did adhere, it came up very easily with any little scuff. Over time it hardened a bit so it doesn't scrape up as easily as it did back in July. I went this way because I didn't want to deal with the dust any longer. It had to have been unhealthy. I'm planning to redo it maybe next year with a different kind of paint that will make it smoother. I totally miss being able to slide around in my socks like i could at the last place. I wish I knew how they did their floors. It might have been polished epoxy resin.

As I neared finishing the floor, my bed arrived. I'll go into detail about that in another blog post, but all I'll say right now is it was a major undertaking. It was expensive and scary, but it's awesome! Then there was the painting of the walls, the 2 attempts at getting the bathroom color right, the mural in the kitchen and most recently part 1 of a mural for the hallway. And so many other projects to come!

Somewhere in all of this I am slowly finding time to make artwork again and I've been opening up for open studios. It's funny to have been so distracted by the apartment thing since making art is the reason I'm here. At the same time I am reminded that about 10 years ago I briefly thought about going to school for either interior design or architecture. I figured since I couldn't find work as an information architect, why not be a real architect. 'Course now I know a lot of them struggle in various ways too. I'm still pretty obsessed with it. But I can still learn enough about all this stuff without going to school. It's the great thing about these modern times.

Leaving Lynn

So, as I hinted in the last post, I am indeed moving! I am moving to Lowell! When my noisy neighbors get to me, I find myself doing searches on craigslist and google. At some point in January just before I headed to Dublin, I came across the Western Avenue Lofts project. Essentially there is an incredibly successful complex of artist studios in Lowell called Western Avenue Studios and they decided to take over another building and carve out 50 live/work spaces. It is open to artists only and there are no income restrictions. Perfect for me!

But on top of that, the apartments will be delivered fairly raw with a minimal kitchen and bathroom. The walls come only primed, so residents get to paint and do pretty much whatever they want to the place. And not only do they allow us to go crazy inside, but they also want us to decorate the hallway outside of the apartment. When you walk the halls of the studio buildings you get a sense of the individual identities of the artists and they want to continue that. 

The apartments are still under construction, but I've been able to make a couple of visits and see the progress they're making. I totally can't wait to move in! I've already been very obsessed with how I will decorate and arrange things. I'm essentially doubling the amount of space I have. Also I will be participating in the monthly open studios so that will force me to do two things: keep the place clean and stay productive with my artwork. I've been slacking off the past few months, partly due to the new gig and partly due to the mild winter. Last year's snow storms totally kept me at my work table. This year, not so much. But I've got big plans and finally I will have the space to execute them, not to mention a supportive and thriving artists community. I feel so incredibly lucky to have found this place and to honor that I'll be working harder than ever!