I apologize for the delay in publishing the second part of my Vermont Studio Center experience. A week ago today my wife and I had to put down our wonderful cat, Maisy. She had suffered a stroke the week before and was unable to recover. We miss her terribly.
OK, back to the residency experience…
The Studio
Once registration was complete, I was taken to my studio in the Schultz Sculpture Studio building. My studio was located on the first floor just steps away from the shop area. If I am being honest, I was a bit disappointed in the size and finish of my studio. I found it to be a little on the small side and a bit dirty. However, I think I felt this way because of how spoiled I am with my at-home studio space. Based on the feedback from other residents, these studios are pretty nice to compared to what they’ve used in the past. I later discovered that the studio spaces on the second floor of Schultz are quite a bit larger than the one I had. I guess I was unlucky in being assigned the smaller space, though it was nice to be close to the equipment.
Once familiar with the facilities, I began unloading my car. I had packed everything I could possibly think of because I wasn’t sure how accessible supplies would be. My aching back hardly made itself known during the excitement of prepping my studio space. I carried some 50+ plywood panels through the snow into the studio. I carried my paints, clear coat, framing clamps, etc. I was just excited to get started.
I set about organizing the studio. Once everything was in order (or ordered enough), I got straight to work. I worked up until dinner time and afterward I returned to my studio. I probably worked until 1am the first night. That’s quite late for me.
The rest of the first week followed a similar trajectory. I got to the studio at about 9am and finished up between midnight and 1am. My only breaks were for meals, work study and other programs. Although I wasn’t overly impressed with the facilities at first, they were certainly conducive to working, and work hard I did.
The Room
At some point on the first day, I was taken to the house where I would be staying, Bradley House. I was shown to my room on the second floor. I guess I can say it was adequate. It was not luxurious accommodations but you wouldn’t want that anyway… you want to be in the studio. Well, I guess there are times when more luxury would have been welcome, but we’ll get to that later.
My room was a bit of the small size. It had a closet, twin bed, vintage dresser and a chair. The colors used to paint the room were not chosen by a colorist. I thought that they were “oops” colors from the local hardware store, but later discovered they were not and that a movement was underway to change the colors. While I might prefer the serenity of beige, I certainly don’t begrudge VSC for the paint in the houses. After all, the purpose of the residency is to make art, and it is successful in facilitating that.
Although each resident gets their own room, they do have to share a bathroom. For me, I shared the bathroom with three other guys. The bathroom was adequate although the lack of a shower head caused water pressure to be intense. Think acupuncture.
I should note that during my first week at VSC, I never saw a single housemate. Occasionally I heard a door open or shut, but I never actually saw someone. This illustrates just how varied people’s schedules were.
The Back
I’ve already talked a great deal about the art I made while in residency. A consequence to the productivity in the studio was that my back injury got worse and worse each day. Standing on my feet for 12+ hours a day turned out to be a bad thing for allowing my back to heal. As the first week progressed, it became more and more difficult to bend, lift, stand up and sleep. To give a sense of the pain, when I would have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, it would take up to 15 minutes to get out of bed. Every strategy I used for getting up would cause severe pain. Eventually, I would just push through the pain. It was that or wet the bed.
By Thursday my productivity and happiness began to decline. I decided that I couldn’t work like that for the entire month. I found a chiropractor in a nearby town and saw him on Friday. By this point my back was severely curved and I limped noticeably. The chiropractor tried several treatments and finally said the words I dreaded most: BED REST. In order for the injury to stop progressing, the chiropractor said I really needed two days of bed rest. How miserable! I knew, though, that sacrificing two days to bed rest would likely make the remaining three weeks much more productive. I drove back to my house, went to my room, and laid down. Other than meals, I stayed in bed for two days. It was awful. No TV. No internet connection other than through my phone. I tried watching DVDs on my laptop, napping, etc, to pass the time. By Saturday night I called my wife and told her I wasn’t feeling any better. I told her that if I didn’t feel better when I woke up on Sunday that I wanted her to come get me. I refused to stay in Vermont for three more weeks in such agonizing pain.
Sunday morning finally came and when I opened my eyes I had a strange sensation. The pain had significantly declined. I was actually on the mend. Although I had to be very careful doing my everyday activities, I could go back to work. Five to ten minutes working followed by five to ten minutes sitting. Still, I was back to work!
With the worst of the pain behind me, I was determined to make the most of my remaining time in Vermont.
[to be continued]
