Kali Tal

October 27, 2004

Moving to a New Studio

When I rented my first studio four months ago from Creative Light Art Center at 2007 N. Stone, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. The difference between working in a studio and working at home was like night and day. Suddenly I felt like I could be completely alone with my work, without disturbing noises (like telephones) and people (like roommates). The studio was around 325 square feet (a size I thought enormous), and had fabulous natural light. It also had air conditioning (a necessity in Tucson), and was in a building that was supposed to be shared with other artists, and to have a gallery and full amenities (such as running water and electricity).

Unfortunately, the fellow who bought the building had dreams bigger than his means, and by the end of September I found myself chafing at the fact that he hadn't delivered on promised electrical outlets and, most particularly, on running water. Somebody who grouts a lot and paints a lot (like me) just needs running water. It isn't a luxury. I gave him to the end of October to come through, but as of today the water isn't hooked up yet, and I've put in an application (hopefully approved by mid-morning today) for a new studio. It isn't in a studio district; it's a residential guest house. But it has 600 sq feet, a bathroom, a refrigerator and a stove, linoleum tiling, huge storage areas, and an outside, fenced and covered porch where I can do my grouting and resining without fear of inhaling too many toxic fumes. And it has running water and electricity in the porch area as well. I couldn't have asked for more, especially since it's $375/mo, $125 less than I'm paying for my current studio. And it saves me an additional $65/mo since the things in the rented storage space can easily be stored in the new studio storage area.

I feel a bit silly to have laid out the $500/mo that I did in the beginning, but it's a learning experience. Now I know better. This week will be a hell of moving (especially since I have a wicked head cold), but it'll be worth it. I can't wait to start posting photos of the new work that I'll do in that space.

Posted by kalital at 10:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 26, 2004

The Burden of the Blog

It serves me right for putting up a Blog and leaving it unattended for months. I came back to find 4000+ spam "comments" piled up over four months, and it just took me three days to go through and clean them out. Obviously, I am going to have to pay more attention to what is going on here at my own site.

I've had a good excuse for being busy. First of all, I've rented a studio and have been devoting all of my non-teaching time to art. You can browse the online gallery and let me know what you think.

The second thing I've been focusing on has been filling out the paperwork to emigrate to Canada. I've decided to apply for Permanent Residence status and move to British Columbia. I just don't want to be an American anymore. I might dislike being American less if John Kerry is elected, but the idea of being ex-pat is still more attractive. There'll be more on the emigration process as it unfolds--I have heard so many other Americans say they want to move to Canada that perhaps the information might be useful.

Posted by kalital at 7:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack