Placemaking: Our Maine Home and Studio
Come on into my old Maine home and watch what I’ll build for us.
Placemaking Before, During and After Me
I think about placemaking a lot. To be clear, places have already been made - they existed long before me, they’ll exist looooong after me. I am not making any place that our earth hasn’t already made.
When I think about placemaking, I think about how I can respect the buildings here, the earth and land, the air and energy that make up the soul of the place that I’ve been invited into. Acting as an environmental steward and a caretaker helps me remove myself from “ownership”, which is tied to capitalism, and instead, places me in a mindset of a partnership around this home and this land.
Together, we are going to make something very, very special.
In fact, I think it is already here.
Let’s start with home.
My house today, all ready for Pride month.
This 75 year old Cape Cod in Hampden, Maine existed long before me. She’s got good, deep roots in a loving, vibrant Maine family.
I know this because not only do I feel their presence here, I also did a lot of research on her after we moved in. Between my archival digging and stories from my lovely neighbors, I have put together a picture of the original family who created my home.
The Ayers built this place in 1950 and then grew the house, raised their babies and passed her down to their next generation, the Lupos.
I see evidence of their joy and playfulness, like this 2x4 we uncovered after repairing a wall in my future studio.
When we bought the homeplace last year, I watched the auras of the Ayers and Lupos move through the rooms and woods. They were welcoming us. I felt like I was a part of their family, a goodhearted guest invited in and asked to stay a while.
Our guest room before and after, featuring Frannie Cat.
The kitchen, especially, had strong matronly energy. I saw whole lives communicated on the landline, news discussed around the table, celebrations and heartbreaks.
When I walk around the woods and peek into the - now, sadly dilapidated - outbuildings, I get a strong sense these spaces were used for family camping, leisure and gardening. There are signs of love everywhere - heritage tulips that come up in the spring, a wooden ship on the barn that has withstood many Maine winters.
There’s even this old fountain that was disconnected from electricity long ago. At first, I found this fountain intimidating but I’ve since embraced it. I plan to honor it by filling it with topsoil and flowers. In fact, we intentionally set the chicken coop nearby so the old fountain has some well-loved company.
There’s not much we can do to repair these old buildings that are now serving as wildlife habitats, so we’re scheduling them to be torn down. But, I’ve rummaged through and taken out things I want to keep like old window screens, antique jars and fencing.
In the future, I see us opening the heart of these woods to tent campers and gatherings so we can keep the outdoor recreational energy flowing.
When we did our initial walkthrough of the place, we had driven 14 hours up from Pennsylvania. The whole way, I dreamed with Leigh about my studio. Our realtor had done a virtual tour with us the week before and I fell in love with the old woodworking workshop in the garage. I knew it was the perfect place to make glass art.
Before, during and after the workshop clean out.
We had our work cut out for us to get the garage ready for my studio. We spent the past year installing a new roof, new electric, cutting back invasive plants, painting, getting new garage doors and light demolition.
After a lot of planning and research, the space is now ready for our contractor to come next month and build it up to a space of creation once again.
This time, though, it’ll have insulation and a heat pump instead of a broken woodstove and thin plywood walls!
The studio will serve as my private workshop but will also be a place I invite other artists to work with me on collaborations or just when they need a break from solo creating in the long winter. I’ll host a few small classes - maybe 3 people at a time. And, I’ll have open studio days where the public can come in and visit.
Ray Lupo, the previous workshop tinkerer, established the space as his own and I feel his energy in there with me.
He passed on in 2020. Sometimes when I’m out working, I ask his opinion on things and hope he likes feeling included in our updates.
The LIFE in this house and land is what
makes it a community place.
This house was always going to be our home.
My sense is that maybe I lived here in another time and that timeline sweeps up against this current one to tell me that I was always going to live here. Maybe I feel that way because I love it here so much. Maybe it’s both?
This house and land were always going to be our community gathering place.
When we talked about buying a home here in Maine, I didn’t want the home and land to just be “ours”. It never was and never will be “ours”.
Instead, I wanted to open the heart of the home and land to artists and queerfolks. So it will be.
What’s next?
First! The studio renovation will begin in August (so soon!) and I’ll be sure to update my email newsletter subscribers with the progress.
Next! I plan to paint the rest of the garage and add a mural. I’ve never painted a mural before so we’re going to see how this will go, haha.
Then! We will begin saving and working towards a installing a shed that will serve as my gallery and gathering place. Right now, there’s an old garage/barn on our land that needs to be torn down. After that, I will trim back the foliage, establish some garden beds and save for the shed/building of my gallery dreams.
The old barn to be torn down and the shed I’ll be saving money to get for my gallery and gathering place.
My vision is for friends, family and community to experience my glass art, learn how to make their own AND to feel the soul of the land, gardens and home.
In this digital world, doesn’t this analog place of
nature and art sound good? It does to me, too.
I am laying the foundation, sometimes literally, of a future place here that’s rooted in a Maine family’s past and that says to me: you belong here, I will shelter you and I am grateful.
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You’ll get to see behind-the-scenes photos and alllll my feelings as we get this thing DONE.