Making Big Changes

 Hi all,

My husband and I are starting a new chapter of our lives, spending several months of the year in Tucson, AZ. We were there for 5 weeks in November to work on making our new house a home, came home to Illinois for a few weeks over the holidays and will return to Tucson in early January for 3 months.  It is a big change (especially for me!).  One of the biggest changes is that I gave up my studio in Illinois and ended up downsizing quite a bit to move things home. I felt that spending money on rent when I was not going to be there working did not make any sense.  The other side of that coin is that I have a casita space (AKA the NEW studio) in Tucson. So I have been trying to figure out how to set up 2 different spaces over the past few months. Sounds decadent, doesn't it???  I feel very lucky to have the space in Tucson but it came with a price. My current home studio is a small room in the basement that I share with the plumbing, the electrical box, the second refrigerator (:-), the alarm system and not one window.  I do have a second bedroom down in the lower level that is being pressed into service for a place to sit and work on computer and printer and my sewing area is making use of my desk in the other room.  

The Tucson space is about the size of a one car garage, has some built in storage, a great floor, a sink, and 2 windows.  I have been getting it pulled together so that when I go back in January I can begin to work.

Meanwhile, I am back in Illinois trying to work out what is worth shipping to Tucson in terms of supplies, and when does it make more sense to just order from Blick.

The other outcome on the Illinois end is that I got a U-Haul indoor storage space (10 x 15) to have a place to store all the finished art work that used to reside in that small room in the basement. THAT has been great actually. Close by, very well lighted and secured. I can go find things there easily and it is only 5 minutes away.  And cost a lot less then my former studio space.

For this first 3 month time in Tucson I am going to work primarily on the online workshop that I signed up for a year ago with Claire Benn on Natural Pigments.  I hope my narrowing my focus there I can work out the kinks of working in a new space.

I keep telling myself that change is GOOD, difficult in the moment but GOOD in the long run. And I truly believe that a change to an entirely new setting and environment will help my work expand in new directions. I am already collecting bits of desert "stuff". Dried cactus, wood fragments, etc.  We shall see.

Stay tuned! I might write about this again in April. And maybe there will even be pictures of new work.