A Studio Is Born...

On April 1st 2012 we signed on the many dotted lines and received the keys to the perfect house. By perfect I mean with a TON of work it could be perfect. The shell was there but no one had loved this place in a very long time. It was in nice friendly and quiet neighborhood that reminded both of us of "home". It had a fenced in back yard for the dog and our future children.  I was 7mths pregnant at the time with our daughter. But the most perfect thing about this house to me? You guessed it, STUDIO SPACE! The house we bought had an In-Law Suite built on the side and what used to be the living room of that Suite would now be known as The Artistic Bean Studio!! Yippie. I was so excited that I could have jumped for joy if I hadn't been carrying around a huge prego belly. The sad part was that of course, my studio was the lowest priority among the MILLIONS of projects we had ahead of us just to get us moved into the house. But that story is for another day.

The studio was used to house all sorts of boxed items destined for other parts of the house. It was simply a dumping ground and was filthy from the previous owners and smelled of old people and cats. 

After moving in in May and having my daughter in June it felt to me like the studio would never come to life. Mr. Artistic Bean (Mr. AB for short) simply had way too many things on his plate with running his own business and still working on the house to help so it was up to me. And in the end it was SO satisfying. There is nothing like looking back at all of your hard work and seeing how far you have come. So join me dear reader on a little adventure that has evolved over the last year's worth of baby nap times and stolen moments to give birth to The Artistic Bean Studio!

This is what the studio looked like in the early days once I cleared out everything that was supposed to live in other parts of the house. I worked around boxes, disorganized piles and random cleaning supplies. My desk was the only "working" space and even that was questionable.

I would shove everything to one side of the room while I cleaned, taped off and painted. When everything dried I'd shove everything back over and work on another side. It was s.l.o.w. goings but it was going.

They said I was crazy, that it was way too much work. "It will be too busy looking" they said. Pish Posh! I had a vision and I knew it would turn out great and make this space a studio and not just a room I did art in. I researched just the right stencil, the perfect paint colors and off I went.

I took me several days to get it all done, one section at a time but oh I was in love!

It's PERFECT! The only problem now was that all those neigh sayers were so in love with it that they refused to let me put any shelves on it.

So then came my next vision. A counter the length of the wall and the height of a table. Mr. AB was on the job. He knew just how he wanted to make it. He even drew plans for me to approve and everything! He's awesome. 

How do you ensure that it will be level you ask? Well when your hubby is a Land Surveyor it's no problem! You just bust out the old digital level.

                                         

Ask your wife who used to work with you out in the field to dust off her skills and you're both off and leveling! 

                                 

In the end it took 4 sections of glued and screwed plywood, a custom ordered piece of laminate due to it's extra long length and the help of a visiting nephew to get this baby to come to life but oh how I LOVE her. Since Mr. AB knows my love of piling things on top of any surface available, he made sure it was super strong and tested it out by actually standing on it! Yep I think she'll hold anything I pile on her.

That brings us to today. The studio is by no means complete but she's up and producing and that's all that matters.  Half of the studio is baby proof as I have my little muse with me at all times.

It's an ever growing and ongoing process to arrange and organize but as any artist will tell you, a studio is a living, breathing space. It's constantly growing and evolving along with the artist who inhabits it. 

I never in a million years thought I'd have such a wonderful place to create and launch my visions. It's a dream come true. I couldn't have wished for a more creatively rich environment to raise my daughter. And it's all thanks to my wonderful partner in crime Mr. Artistic Bean. None of this would have ever been possible without him. He's supported me from day one when we lived in a teeny apartment that smelled of kimchee and curry by Akron University. Ah, those were the days!