Sweat trickled along the seam of my double-layer cotton mask. It was a familiar sensation, now five months into this global pandemic, when a face covering is as ordinary as a pair of socks or shoes to get out the door everyday.
This particular day however, and the reason for my perspiration was less than ordinary- it was my last day as the Drake University Artist in Residence at Mainframe Studios. Last August I knelt on the cold concrete floor to assemble a 4 by 7 foot Ikea table, piece by piece. Various shapes and sizes of bolts, screws, and washers glittered on the floor around me like the spilled contents of a steampunk jewelry box.
Now, screwdriver in hand, I knelt again on the floor, this time with the table turned upside down like some giant white bug, stuck on it’s back. There was no way it would fit out the door without the legs coming off. Right?
Painstakingly, I began the slow process of disassembly– only realize I had brought the right size screwdriver, but I needed a pair of pliers as well. Damn it, I thought brushing my quarantine-length hair out of my face. I didn’t have time to run home and search my toolbox for the requisite piece. So what if I tipped the table on its side?
“Because when the world feels like it’s turned upside-down, what else can we do, but to try and look at it from another angle?”
Haltingly, I began to slide the table along the floor with the aid of a canvas dropcloth. And sure enough, it fit! I continued this ungraceful dance down the (fortunately, empty) hallway to my new residence: a shared studio with Sarah Noll Wilson.
While Sarah and I bring entirely different disciplines to the Mainframe community, I think both of us can agree on the importance of creative problem solving. Since the pandemic began this past spring, she successfully moved her business to an entirely virtual model, but was loathe to give up her beloved studio space. And fortunately for her, I was in the market for a temporary solution so as to not move entirely out of the building while I wait out the remaining six months for construction of a new studio space on the third floor.
I have yet to make my new, shared studio feel any bit like my own as Sarah has encouraged me to do. At the moment, my furniture and supplies still linger just inside the door. I will make time to fit everything into its proper place, because even if it is temporary – it’s an opportunity for fresh a perspective. Not just a new view out the west-facing windows, but a new chapter in my journey as a part of the Mainframe community. And I don’t take my good fortune for granted.
If this year has taught me anything, it’s to find a new perspective; sometimes, in the case of my table, quite literally. Because when the world feels like it’s turned upside-down, what else can we do, but to try and look at it from another angle?
Preparing to cut through concrete to create windows on the soon-to-be renovated second and third floor studios.