In the Box

Today is the first day that I am writing in my....wait for it.....studio. Yes, an actual artist's studio at St. Joseph Michigan's Box Factory for the Arts. Number 23 Riverwalk in the lower level of the building. It feels a little pretentious to call myself an artist, but it's a moniker that has followed me around in one form or another for a long time. A "communication artist" was the term used by a career/life coach in the past. It felt not completely false so I lived with it and it has become something I can say without snickering. 

The goal of driving round trip about an hour to a place I had to be approved by a board to rent and paying rent every month use to have a place to write? Excellent question. One I don't have a full answer to and may not until the end of the year, if then. But in part it is to acknowledge the fact that writing is something that I need to do. In some ways it is as much a part of me as breathing. In other ways it is as difficult as telling someone that you don't love them any more. Whatever its relationship to me, this is a place where nothing but writing will occur. And where I am completely focused on writing.

What will I write? Another good question. I don't have grand plans for a novel or an essay or poem. I just know that I have so much in my head that needs to be captured. It is a way that I learn; after seeing what I've written about something I either understand it more deeply, in a new way or know that I still have work to do. Or perhaps I can finally put it aside and say; enough, there isn't sufficient time, energy, interest to do more. And that will be ok. 

Bottom line: chances are good that in the future when you see a post to this blog, it was written in this little oddly shaped, basement room that is devoid of all but the bare necessities - desk, chair, bookshelf, lamp and writing instruments. (I still use paper and pen as well as a computer.) Like with a good meal, simple ingredients well prepared result in amazing dishes. I can only hope the same for my writing.