STUDIO NOMAD, pt. 3

My latest "porta-studio," in Roccatederighi, Italy. I'll be back in my Plymouth, NH studio at the end of June.  (Note: I swept the floor before taking this photo)

In March there was a fire in the basement of the building where my New Hampshire studio is located. I was out of town at the time. When the landlord called me, I imagined the worst, but, though the lovely store where the fire started unfortunately has had to rebuild from scratch, and the yoga studio across the hall from me on the 2nd floor cleaned and aired out for days, on the morning after the fire I climbed the stairs and unlocked my studio door with bated breath, but there was only the slightest hint of smoke odor. 

I was very relieved, but the experience has me wondering if it’s wise to keep such a large percentage of inventory in one relatively vulnerable space. I know two artists who lost a heartbreaking amount of work, in their cases from water damage. Not to mention the devastating 1966 flood in Florence, when the scale of damage was unimaginable.

Speaking of Italy but in a happy context, since April 2nd we've been renting an apartment on the piazza in the village near the land we bought last year. Our property, at the end of a dirt road, has 180 long-neglected olive trees and a small stone structure. Work hasn’t even begun on the house yet, but we’ve been busy on the land with loppers, chainsaw, and weed whacker.

My little studio here is directly across the stairway landing from our apartment in town. Its special feature is a tiny balcony with a stunning view of the Maremma plain and the sea beyond. Unfortunately, the door to said balcony is in the equally tiny bathroom. We use the space to hang laundry to dry.

With all the work to do on the land, plus an encouraging amount of local jazz gigs, it took a few weeks to build up enough supply of paper– playbills, old, past date, and torn posters–the stuff my work depends on. Now the pace has finally picked up. But on every expedition or shopping trip, I keep a lookout, utility knife at the ready, for more material. I head to Florence in a few days for some gigs, and I will be sure to poster hunt there.

I’ll send my precious piles of paper home, along with some finished work when we return to the states at the end of the month. I'm already dreaming of a permanent studio somewhere in town here, but first things first: we need to get the house livable. Unfortunately I don’t seem to have any control over that… the pace of work in Italy… but come October I can at least come pick olives, make oil, and make art. Meanwhile I look forward to returning to my studio in beautiful New Hampshire and preparing for my solo show in September at the Robert Levy Gallery in Portsmouth.