Patrick Cross on sun 19 mar 06
I thought I would throw this idea for studio space out there for any cerami=
c
artist (or otherwise) who might be in the same position as I find myself.
When I was a student in the art department at the University of Georgia the
ceramics department had a benefit that the other undergrad departments did
not. The advanced ceramics students each had their own 10'X10' studio
space. Every other art student had to share common studios. To find any
sort of personal studio space to rent in Athens you pretty much had to wait
for someone to croak or know someone very well who was moving from Athens
and giving up the space they rented. If you were lucky enough to find
something the rent was on the high side for anyone struggling to make ends
meet.
Well for me this just was not a concern...that is until I left school. The=
n
I was in the same boat as everyone else. I even tried to get away with
setting my wheel up in the kitchen of my apartment for a while, which as
anyone who has tried this will most likely tell you is just an all around
bad idea. I finally put off trying to be a studio potter for several years
and became a carpenter/plumber/electrician/whatever else it took stay
afloat.
I thought about this dilemma of no studio and came you with this. In
Starkville, MS where I live now there is an industrial park area of town.
Right in the middle of it all there is a storage facility like where you
would stash all the stuff that won't fit in your house anymore but you just
can't bring yourself to get rid of permanently...so you just keep 're-buyin=
g
it' on a monthly basis. This is a little unusual for places such as this
but the facility I found has power to each unit. It's not much...just
florescent lighting and one outlet...but the electricity bill is on the
owner, not the renter. I've rented a space that's 20'X30' for
$165/month...roughly $5.35/day. If I look at it that way it just doesn't
seem like that much...y'know sell a coffee cup each day on average and the
rent is paid.
One great thing about the units is the roof is about 20' up toward the
peak...plenty of headroom left if I decide to build a storage loft in it.
It has a 10' wide door so I can easily pull my truck in if need be. There
is a large area of concrete apron out the front of the unit which can be
used as temporary work space as well. One down side to the place is no
plumbing except for an exterior faucet about a 100 yards away. I'm thinkin=
g
about setting up a make shift sink with a 20-40gallon water cistern above
it. I could put together a PVC drain running through the door to the grave=
l
parking lot outside with a flexible end that could be slung out of the way
when the door comes down.
The owner has a clear understanding of what my intentions for the space are
and as it happens there are several other renters doing similar things with
their spaces. There's a guy down the way who has set up a cabinet shop in
his...another guy there builds race cars in his. I'll also have live music
just around the corner because a couple of local bands rent units for
practice space. It ought to be a very interesting micro community.
If others of you out there have done something similar I would really like
to hear about it. Photos of how your studio is set up would be even better=
.
Patrick Cross (cone10soda@Gmail.com)
| |
|
