Category: Art Studio (Page 2 of 2)

The Clean Studio

February 26, 2022 / Conal

That didn’t take long.

My artist wife spent 10 years without cleaning her art studio in our suburban, prairie bungalow. Her studio, the size of a living room, fills a quarter of our basement.

Paint-covered floors, canvasses stacked everywhere, and piles of paint supplies in the middle of the room were common behind the perpetually closed door. As sure as the sun rises, that studio would be a mess.

Yet, it took her the time of one my strength-training workouts to clean the place.

Seriously. One hour.

The Overwhelming Stench

February 5, 2022 / Conal

It hit me like a fly hits the windshield of a speeding bus.

With the kids at school, my artist working in her studio, and me on a day off, I had stepped out of the house for a couple of hours to put up some of our Christmas light display on our western Canadian, suburban home. With 8,000 bulbs in our display, it takes a lot of time and even more thought to set it up.

By the time I had another 2,000 bulbs on the house, I was mentally drained.

I needed to shut my brain off. I needed to feel my cold-numbed fingers and toes. I needed to go inside.

So, I did.

The Week Before Christmas

December 18, 2021 / Conal

Twas the week before Christmas on the Canadian prairie,
As we sat in our living room in a mood most merry.
My artist wife sitting in her blue easy chair,
Knowing I was still hung up on her unicorn hair.

Our daughter was nestled all snug in her bed,
While dreams of Kandinsky danced in her head.
And our son lay asleep on his pillow, his mouth curled in a smirk,
Dreaming about Griffey, Jeter, and Ripken, definitely not artwork.

When down in our basement there arose such a clatter,
I jumped off our couch to see what was the matter.
Away to the stairs I flew like a flash,
Down through the basement landing, a very mad dash.

The Art Studio

November 27, 2021 / Conal

The day you move into a new home is exciting. Unending opportunities abound. The blank canvas is empty, waiting for you to fill it with furniture, decor, and memories.

In our case, we had some minor renovations to complete on that sunny, prairie-sky day in 2009.

First on the list: Creating an art studio space for my wife. Thanks to support from my father, we moved a 10-foot section of wall in our basement to accommodate a space that takes up roughly a quarter of the entire footprint of our lower level.