A sign from above

It’s official now!  The Art Establishment sign went up on the front of the building yesterday, so I guess there’s no turning back now.  Tom designed the logo and Mike Kingcaid (wearing the bandanna) made the sign.  We think it looks great!

It took a while to hang, as you will see by the ever-increasing darkness in the photos,

Had to switch from a ladder to scaffolding.

Almost time for the unveiling!

Here's how it looks in daylight!

Introducing our newest teacher, Joyce Danko!

We are very excited to share the news that we have a new teacher on board!  Her name is Joyce Danko and she is a professional Colorist/Artist from Bethlehem.  Joyce is a lifelong painter who, for the past four years, has been closely involved in the traditional atelier method of art training. This reflects the recent movement in the art world towards a revival in the classical approach to training and technical proficiency. She also has an impressive background in color theory (she is a strong advocate of the Fletcher color system), and is a professional color consultant for interior design. Her paintings were included in a number of recent juried exhibitions, and she is also a noted award winning canine painter.

Joyce is very excited to share her knowledge, and we are just as excited that she will be joining our studio! Here are some links to her work:

http://joycedankopainting.com/

http://www.joycedankodesign.com/

"The road to success is always under construction" -Lily Tomlin

Since our last post, things have been moving at lightning speed (including the money out of our checkbook!). Our contractors have been hauling ass and getting lots of things done.  Here's what's been going on:

* The downstairs bathroom, which had to be enlarged to be handicapped accessible, has been framed out and the handicap ramp built.

* The upstairs bathroom, which also had to be enlarged slightly, has been framed, dry walled, and all of the flooring and fixtures purchased and ready to be put in.

Where Tom does some of his best thinking.

* The darkroom is almost done – the lightproof door has been installed and new drywall put up and primed and handicap door installed. 

* Last but not least, the “deep, dark room” which is used for unloading film and has to be absolutely pitch black, has been built, primed and painted, black of course.

In other news, our gallery sign has been printed, looks fabulous, and just needs to be hung.

Whew!  I'm tired just writing about all we've been getting done!  Stay tuned...lots more to come!

A good sign

One of our teachers, Mike Kingcaid, made us a couple of signs with our with our logo, and they turned out fantastic!  He made a large aluminum one for the outside of the front of the building, and a smaller one for the inside.  He hung the smaller one the other day and it was a pretty cool moment when we saw it up on our wall for the first time.  It made everything we've done and are doing seem more real.

A panel of experts (or not)

Tom's been working on putting up some bead board paneling.  It's been a bit of a challenge because, with the vertical lines of the paneling, it has to be perfectly straight, yet the floor is uneven, turning it into a somewhat frustrating process.  Nothing that a little molding can't fix, though!  He finished around the stairwell and is working on the outside of the classroom.  Here are some before and afters of the stairwell.

Allow us to vent for a moment...

I've been working on my pet project, which is the duct work.  Tom says that it's a good thing the guy from the gas company pissed me off when he told me how ugly our duct work was, and that we should really invest $50,000 in some new spiral duct work, because he unknowingly threw down the gauntlet and challenged me to make the existing duct work look as cool as possible.  It's getting there.  Last summer I scrubbed years of dirt and nicotine stains off of the galvanized steel, and now I've been taking off the filthy vents and making them look new again.  Here are some before and afters:

How it looked when I removed it.

Just in case you really didn't know just how dirty it was.  Ewww!

After soaking in ammonia and water and getting a good scrub.

I've learned through this project that there's really nothing a little paint
can't make better.

The finished product!

The other neat thing I discovered is that the duct work was made by a division of Bethlehem Steel called Bethcon, which I had never heard of.  Ours was made 42 years and 16 days ago.  I found this out because I saw this when I removed one of the vents:

Tread on me

The upstairs floor is done!  Tom spent a couple of very late nights (we're talking 3:30 in the morning) working on it, but it was all worth it!  Some before and afters:

We even love all the scratches!