I have rented a garage – at enormous, wasteful cost.
The aim is to give me work space in my own garage – I’m lucky enough to have a garage, despite living close in a fairly urban environment.
This also means putting my 2002 charcoal MGTF into effectively storage. I felt bad about that. The TF range was the last sports car to be produced on a British production line. So I feel protective about mine.
Anyhow….
I’ve come late to being an artist. I’ve done arty things – writing books, being a copywriter and exhibiting my street photography. But producing art is a recent thing.
And I don’t have a studio. My work is in boxes, on shelves and inside cupboards around the house.
I’m not keen on using the garage. It has a corrugated iron roof that possibly contains asbestos. The walls are cement, just one slab thick. Built in the 1960s, such garages were supposed to last 25 years, but many are still going.
Brambles come through the gaps between wall and ceiling, and the place feels damp and unloved. It’s not romantic. I don’t feel inspired to be an artist there.
But I have a practical need to finish off my 3D work, mount the work, photograph it, and store it.
And I haven’t found any studio spaces in my area that I could rent. So the garage it has to be.
I have advertised for a handyman to do some cheap conversion.
And I will buy a cheap sofa from a charity shop or auction room. I find it easier to think when lying down.
But the questions that arise are as follows:
1. Should I be grateful for having a place I can use as a workroom, given that many artists don’t have one? (NB I’m not keen on the word ‘studio’. I feel it’s reserved for proper painters.) Yes, absolutely.
2. Will I be inspired there? I don’t think so. I get inspiration from reading, thinking, going places.
3. Will it be a serviceable as a workroom? Yes, I guess so. More of a storage place really. But being able to see and manage my artworks will be a step forward.
4. Should I stop whinging now? Yes. Shut up, Kit.