A painting marathon

If you Google "famous quotes about friends", you'll find a variety of wise words about friendship. I'm still woozy from the long weekend spent in my studio, where my friend Stacey and I spent about 45 hours over four days there painting.

Well, painting makes it sound like we were rolling the walls with boring white paint.

Not.

We... no, SHE transformed the place into an actual art studio, where just walking in the room makes someone feel just a little more creative than before. It's amazing. So I was struggling to come up with words to explain how the weekend went. But I'd be missing the point if I just spoke about painting, and neglected all the other fine points about what occurred.

First and foremost, Stacey is an artist and a friend. Who else would show up armed with sketches, tools, paints, brushes and inspiration? And energy! On the first night, we prioritized and decided which paintings we couldn't do without. Here she is, starting the big wall, a huge square "canvas" on which to paint a massive tape measure.

Just to give you an idea of the size, this wall is 18' tall and 18' wide, hence the need for the scaffolding.

One of the coolest parts is how the tape continues across the floor.

For many years, I've used handprints in my logo, and we decided those might be a nice addition in the tool room.


I have a crooked, arthritic index finger and Stacey managed to capture that in the painting.

Any long time reader of this blog will know that nearly two years ago, I lost my beloved Aunt Dena. She was an amazing artist and art teacher, and collected crayon memorabilia. In fact, her license plate was "CRAYONS", so what a fitting tribute to include some crayon artwork in my space.

I actually worked on this painting, and ...trust me... I am NOT a painter. Perhaps I was channeling Dena's spirit, this painting over the door is just perfect.

The outlines.


My helper.



And then the color...


The weekend was wrapping up and we still hadn't even started the last huge wall, the one we were both looking forward to the most. Stacey changed her travel plans and arranged to stay an extra day to complete this.




Did you figure it out yet?




Stacey's final detail - her signature.





This screw is 24' long, I'm not sure if this picture can really give you an idea of how great it looks in this space.

What a great weekend, thanks to Stacey's talents and determination.

I'd like to take a moment here to thank everyone who contributed during this painting frenzy - from Danny and Rick from Exotic Millworks, who loaned us their scaffolding, to Larry M. for bringing us lunch that first day, to Jill for picking up a paintbrush and lending a hand. And let's not forget Terry, Helen and Janet for lunch the next day, and ... well, the list goes on and on. I will do a proper acknowledgment in the next few weeks, as I write more about the completion of this school. It's been an amazing process, thanks to the MANY people who have helped out, offered a kind word, and have been so supportive along this journey. I'm really humbled by the outpouring of kindness.

Thanks to everyone, I couldnt' have done this without them.