Studio Assistant, Day 1:

For my first day on the job I was quite nervous. I knew what I was going to be doing, but I didn't know what the work environment was like yet. I'm like this everywhere I go. I woke up extra early so I eat a light breakfast (to prevent nausea from anxiety) and try to estimate the walk from my recently moved-in South Street apartment to Michele Kishita's (my alumna host) studio on Spring Garden Avenue. The walk was approximately thirty five to forty minutes, but I'll have to re-check since I got a bit lost along the way. I called my her and it turned out I had to go even further north by about five or six blocks. No problem. Then it was a tread up to the fourth floor of a building to a snug, air-conditioned little studio.

While Michele and her other assistant Ali loaded paintings up to the loft,  my job was to sand the edges of these canvas stretchers. The purpose was to smoothen the edges and corners so the canvas would not get ripped. If one was to rub their finger against an edge they'd probably get a splinter. So yes, it's a necessary task. Quite a meditative task too. We didn't have any music so I just had my own mental playlist in my head. I mostly kept to myself while my Michele and Ali talked about things that were beyond my precinct. I'm always like this in new environments. I only talk when I have something to say.

When I eventually did get involved in conversation we talked about the entrepreneurship of Blick over Utrecht, and threw around ideas to someday make a collaborative art supplies store as retaliation. I suggested a store run gallery that would both promote local art and the supplies used to make it. By the time that topic had passed I had sanded seven stretchers and three hours had passed. Now was time to stretch canvases. 

I've done this myself many times before, but this was professional work, so I tried at my most obsessive compulsive to make the application of the staples organized and to cut the canvases edges neatly. During all of this more humorous conversation ensued while Michele applied galk to wood panels and Ali also stretched canvases. What I had trouble with was getting the corners right. 

This is the the wrong way.

 And this is the right way.

The trick is to make sure the fold is nice and tight. As redundant as this first days tasks would seem to others ( they made the day fly by, thank you very much), to me I felt it very important. Not only in learning the materials, but also comfortable communication between my host and I. I'm looking forward to what tasks lie ahead. In the meantime I am now the master of corners….and sore thumbs!