My first post was about writing an artist statement and bio, and is based on advice from a great book. This time my inspiration didn’t come from a book, it came from someone I’d just met, Louise, a student in a screenprinting class I delivered earlier this year. Louise stayed back after class one week and within about an hour of chatting she had given me some solid reasons to stop putting off what I have wanted to do for a long time and convinced me to take a risk to achieve my dream.
My dream was to have my own studio space. What Louise told me was so simple and inspired me to act straight away. I applied to lease a property which had been vacant for a while and would suit me perfectly. I didn’t get the property, but I kept looking.
Here is Louise’s advice. If you’ve ever given up on something, maybe it will help you too.
“If you aren’t taking risks, you aren’t living”
This is so true, and makes total sense. I think we should all say this out loud every morning!
“There’s nothing wrong with failing”
These words sent shivers down my spine. I am cautious, always overthinking and limiting myself to things I know I can do. I DON’T take risks because failing is too scary. So, when it came to signing a three year lease, I knew I could be digging a financial hole, but the alternative of playing it safe was not going to get me where I wanted to be.
“I need a collaborator”
Louise described a collaborator as not necessarily a business partner, but someone with whom I can plan things. I have loads of help from my partner, my family and my friends. but they are helping, not collaborating. It’s been six weeks since I picked up the keys to the new place. I’m still fitting it out with equipment and not open for business yet, so maybe a collaborator is still out there.
“I will do it”
Louise said this with absolutely no doubt in her mind, and that was the final bit of confidence I needed. Why was I doubting myself???
Every night I trawled through commercial real estate websites, spending hours seeing the same places. Every now and then something new popped up. There were plenty of disappointments. Many places had already been leased. Some were too remote from any kind of community. Others were too ‘basic’, i.e. more like open sheds. Then finally I got lucky, and as it turned out, it was worth the wait. I couldn’t believe it when I found a place that was available, in my budget, perfectly located and with plenty of room to run workshops.
My new studio is located at 51 Georgetown Road, Georgetown, NSW, Australia. I will be running screenprinting workshops to pay the rent and I’ve named it Tempest Art Screenprint Studio (TASS). TASS will have it’s own webpage here soon but you can look at the insta account at https://www.instagram.com/tempest_art_screenprint_studio/
