Excuse the corny title but how could I sum it up in any other way! I'm now twenty-four years old and have a studio at Gertrude Contemporary. Big changes are afoot/have been afoot in the past week. I'm writing my book. The photoshoot for said book is next week. I am typing this on my brand new Macbook Pro that I bought for myself (with a percentage contributed by my parents as a birthday present) None of these things have sunk in yet.
On the weekend I celebrated my birthday. I thought the celebrations would be minimal but I actually ended up doing a number of things. Friday evening was a cocktail party at Gertrude Contemporary to launch this year's Gertrude Edition. I invited Simon and we made a brief *appearance* before birthday dinner at Cumulus on Flinders Lane. It was delicious and fancy and I really had a lovely time. We had intended to go to Chin Chin but the wait for a table was completely ridiculous - 2.5 hours! And to be honest I'm glad we didn't go there because we had a much more relaxing experience at Cumulus.
Saturday was my actual birthday and I had lunch with my Mum, Nanna, Aunty and sister somewhere local. Then I just kind of relaxed at home for a while before going out for dinner with Mum and Dad. Dad's birthday is the day before mine so it was a joint celebration. On Sunday I had to clean out my studio at Easey Street and it took the whole day. It was about 35 degrees outside which means it's about 45 degrees in our studio, so it was rather unpleasant. I reckon I chucked out 60% of the stuff I'd accumulated there. It felt good. That evening I went to my (other) Nanna's place and had dinner with more extended family including my two little twin cousins who are my favourite. We did colouring-ins together and they gave me a very sweet present and card "I don't know if you have notest but you are my favrot cosen in the wirld" it read.
Monday I ventured back to Easey Street to move and clean more stuff and that night I had dinner with my two remaining friends from high school. Today I had a 'Man with a Van' booked to come and move my big stuff to my 10 x bigger studio at Gertrude Contemporary. Despite the bloke-y nature of their business (WOman with a van anyone?) they provided really good service and it was pretty reasonably priced I guess. Because of my knee I didn't want to do any lifting so I "ordered" two mans to come with the van and they moved everything for me. It was the least stressful move I've ever experienced. I still have a bunch of stuff from home to bring in but I can get my family to help with that, and I guess I can probably start carting things in on the train.
I feel sort of overwhelmed with all the things that are happening at the moment. I even feel overwhelmed writing this blog post because there is so many things I am already missing or have skimmed over and I don't even have pictures of all the things I want to show you...
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Birthday outfit - new Verner skirt and Dress Up top! |
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Cupcakes for my birthday baked by my Nanna |
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Piles and piles of stuff to sort through seemed very daunting on Sunday morning |
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The 'SKIP' pile |
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Unceremoniously un-stretching canvases |
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Bye Bye |
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The end result. Quite a compact lot of things really. |
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Cake made by my other Nanna |
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The only sneak peek of my new studio that you're going to get for the time being! |
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Ridiculous snaps to my buddies |
So I closed the door on Easey Street Studios today and opened one at Gertrude Contemporary. I left my keys in my old studio for a young girl to move in with two of her friends from uni (not unlike how I moved in there two years ago with Georgie and Cheralyn) and dusted my hands of the place and the bizarre people who inhabited it. I don't think it's the end of Easey Street as a location for me though, I'd like to live in a little house on that infamous street one day. As things in my life always tend to come full circle in one way or another (For example - Arlene Textaqueen was my favourite artist in high school and now, well, without sounding too full of myself - I'm on a list of
'Five female artists you should invest in now' alongside her
http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-culture/five-female-artists-you-should-invest-in-now-20141127-11vj1g.html ) Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up back on Easey Street (pun intended) eventually.