meaning of studio
One of my favorite creations is the studio itself. It is the place I made for myself to grow without interference.
To me it is a place of escape. I drive through the gates and arrive into a world where time does not matter, email does not exist, and the burden of rationality is temporarily suspended.
I think we all need a place like this. The pressure of every day life seems to multiply. We escape into our smart phones. We drain their batteries, they drain our souls.
I need plants. And the excitement of potential. The thrill of improving an old warehouse and making it greater than the sum of its parts is motivating to me. I own steel beams, dirt, and landscaping. But those things together combine to create a world where creativity, optimism, and togetherness live.
the discovery
Searching for the studio was something I did each morning. I woke up and scoured the real estate websites for new listings. I found myself drawn mostly to historical places in smaller towns surrounding Atlanta. I would find an interesting listing and take a day trip to visit the property. I visited many interesting places but none felt quite right.
One morning in March of 2021 I woke up to an alert that a property within Atlanta had become available. I drove down to discover what would become the most daunting project I have taken on to date:
A 5,000 square-foot warehouse with land for a garden awaited.
The property was completely overrun with garbage, and collapsed house, and a warehouse so packed full it was impossible to take even a single step inside. I took one look around and thought “yes, this is the place”
I knew I could create here and so I acquired the property and got to work. I entered into this property with what now seems like a comically naive eagerness - I had no idea what lay ahead but was willing to do whatever was needed to create my studio.
the beginning
I truly believed this would take a few weekends to clean out. On day one I cracked open the front door and began to pull things out of the warehouse. I placed each item neatly on the tall grass in front of the building. Layers and layers of items kept coming out and it took hours just to be able to step inside the building. The lawn in front looked like an estate sale gone wrong.
Realization emerged. This was not going to be a quick and easy process as I had originally imagined.
the dark days
Looking back, I can see that I moved forward without fully understanding what I was committing to. When I purchased the property in 2021 I was full of enthusiasm. Blind Ignorance you might say (enter that concept of the suspension of rationality). I truly believed I could clean this place out in a few weekends. What a miscalculation that turned out to be.
6 months into the grueling task of cleaning out this space I stood amongst mountains of debris and thought “what have I done”
I craved a space where I could create freely and felt as if I had engaged in some sort of Faustian bargain: you get the space but it comes with so much work that you have no energy left to create.
I pushed through this feeling and pushed it down… way down where it still lurks and occasionally revisits me.
pushing through
I kept going. I got tougher.
I got better at delegating and asking for help. I realized this studio was not going to be possible with just my own physical abilities. I needed the help of others and that was something I had never considered before.
I began to take help when people offered.
I experienced a different kind of patience and people skills.
A group of men who had come to gather all of the vintage suitcases offered to help load the dumpsters. This made life so much easier and progress marched on.
I also began to loosen my need to control every activity.
People from all walks of life came to salvage any usable items. It was interesting to learn about their specific interests. One person came to gather all of the vintage Christmas decor. Another came for the glass tubes out of old radios? (I still don’t understand what they were doing). A huge crew from the movie studios came and took truck load after truck load of old things to use on sets.
clearing the way
The property came with a house which was unfortunately too far gone to save. This space was cleared and made way for what would become my gardens. As a “house person” this was painful to do but the structure was just too far gone to rescue.
It would be a couple of years before I would have the energy and time to begin my gardens here and they are still developing now.
into the future
After many months of clearing the studio was finally free of the debris. Where to begin? When should I start painting in the space?
I decided one day it was time to just start. I wanted to wait to put together the perfect plan but I decided I needed to just start and I would be able to improve later.
My first works in the studio were completed on the floor. I had no furniture and really… nothing. I was building from the ground up.
The process of figuring out who I was and who I wanted to become was daunting and still continues to this day. Each piece of furniture, each item selected to live in the studio taught me something about the kind of space and creative existence I wanted to inhabit.
I learned to experiment and the huge space has given me a place to explore freely. Ultimately I got my studio and after months of what felt like an eternity I began what continues today. It is amazing to see how far it has come.
