In horse racing, a trifecta can greatly increase the return on your bet if it’s made skillfully and graced with a little bit of luck. Hopefully the same went for our FIRST First Friday, which also happened to be on May 1st. Lucky 3s!
Megan and I had a lot working against us. We timed our lives to the tune of “let’s get in to the studio at precisely the same time we’re moving out of our old homes, moving in to new homes, and, while we’re at it, let’s do this all one week before First Friday!”
The week of the 27th was wild, and the two of us were juggling our day jobs and our private lives in addition to executing plans for the studio. Most days consisted of a shift at work, moving some heavy things across town, grabbing dinner somehow and then painting well in to the night. It was meditative work, and I think it provided us a quiet place to bounce ideas off of each other as well as get silly when there was so much else going on outside those walls. There were frustrations, too, and if anyone asks: YES. There ARE six coats of red paint below the chair rail. That’s the last time we don’t listen to the nice guy at the hardware store when he says we should use a tinted primer
First Friday came quickly, and we shoved allll our stuff in to the back room of the studio in order to spiff up the front. We celebrated our space’s youth with apple juice and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as well as a little white wine and housewarming champagne and spirits from Tom and Christine, Kate and Jamie. We held a toast at 7pm thanking everyone for their support (emotional and technical, thanks for the supplies, Percy!)
As for the exhibition, Megan showed some sweet little flowers vases that featured some really wonderful greenery from Harmon’s and Barton’s down the street. In addition to those, Megan’s flasks and cups were on display on the second shelf while Audrey adorned the walls in framed photographs. It was the first time since school that our work had been officially exhibited, and we were so pleased with the way our work shows together. In fact, feedback from the show that night led us eventually to settle on the name Stoplight Studios which, in addition to being pretty fun to say, illustrates the color palette, playfulness and order that we love.
So here’s hoping we make good on our trifecta, and earn good energy, relationships (and money wouldn’t hurt!) back on our bet!
Now that we have the proper forum in which to do it, the both of us would like to e-toast the following people for their various contributions to our development:
Thanks to Michelle at Stonecoast for being so enthusiastic about us wanting to see ALL the vacant properties in the building, to Rae, Chris and Tony for doing the most AMAZING PBR-fueled midnight move EVER. Thanks to Percy Wheeler (of Percy Cycles) for loaning us painting supplies that made our busy lives so much easier…also thanks to Percy just in GENERAL for being a fountain of information. We’re going to miss our fifth floor neighbor! Thanks to Payson, Erin and Jane (and Krista!) from Four Square Studios on the 5th floor (where we came from!) for six months of studio goodness. Many slurred thanksyouuzzs to Tom and Christine, Kate Brown and Jamie Wright for bringing libations to the studio warming! To Derek Lobley for being at every freaking First Friday, and ridiculing Audrey’s iPod playlist selections (I know, Thriller isn’t the best art opening song…so what? It’s awesome.) Thanks to Dave and Asunte, Jan ter Weele and my Mom for being some of the first visitors to our trifecta! And of course to our respective significant others, Jason and Matt, who pretty much put up with absentee girlfriends for a week and a half. Glad to be back to normal and able to afford grocery shopping as well as the time to make dinner again!
Also, for your information, we are located at 615 Congress St. or 142 High St. (State Theater building) and all you have to do is take the elevator to the 3rd floor and find room 302. We are definitely kicking it back in to high gear for First Friday, June 5th. Come visit us!
