A place for moving

This week, Michael Baxter finished the window in the Studio.

It’s been a decade since I imagined a single opening in the wall, bringing the presence of the valley into the clean lines of the Studio, clean timber that holds the focus inside, on the work.

I put the internal frame in as John and I lined the old shed walls, and put aside an old security screen door from the house to one day serve as the frame for a panel that would lift outwards, opening the space. But I didn’t meet anyone I trusted to cut through the outside sheath of galvanised iron and complete the idea. In particular, making the whole ensemble rain-tight seemed tricky, and I wasn’t prepared to compromise the external wall.

Then Michael moved in last year as the Studio’s resident woodworker., on the strength of his needing a workspace, and me needing someone who could solve knotty problems around the Studio, like the sagging roof of the kitchen. As I got to know Michael, it gradually dawned on me that he might be the person to finish the opening in the Studio.

He was.

Michael Baxter repositioning the gas struts

Rummaging around in my vimeo account, I found a piece from six years ago, about the Studio as a place to move with people like Alice Cummins and the wonderful people who came to her workshops.

Alice has left, but that intention still lives in the Studio. A place to learn as a moving body.

The simple lines of timber floor and walls hold the moving, but now, when it’s right, a panel opens out to the trees along Sandy Creek, and the air can move in and around the Studio.