I had my sights set on the ground floor to turn it into a studio. Of course, I also needed to figure out where I was going to find the equipment and whatnot to actually have a studio, but as they say:

                                   IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME.

My former gallery, Hagan Fine Art, was making a move to a wonderful new location back in the heart of Charleston's French Quarter. Their landlords were a couple that included an artist named Margaret Peterson... 

...and she just so happened to have an entire printmaking studio she was planning to sell. I was blown away by what I was purchasing and how generous both she and her husband, Harold, were to help me make this ​happen.

And so, with a deadline to get the equipment moved, Ethan and I busted our butts to get the downstairs space emptied of all we'd been storing it in, lay down subfloors, put up insulation and walls, and get the place ready for a printmaker's dream studio. 

My educational background was Art History and Studio Art with a focus on Printmaking. For years (over a decade!) after college, I didn't do any printmaking. I didn't have the money to rent a studio, a space in my home to create a proper, and didn't make the time. 

My husband, Ethan, has always been rooting for me to get back into it. The first (and only) print I did while still living in New York was an abstract view looking down the bike path of the Manhattan Bridge. This was his commute every day for the thirteen years he lived in Brooklyn. He used it for the cover of a chapbook he wrote called Cadence. 

Well, I finally got the studio of my dreams. But, you'll have to keep reading in Part 2 to find out exactly what that means...