My story is rather unusual. I had a studio in a large warehouse and another tenant attempted to commit insurance fraud by setting his space on fire. Unfortunately my studio was nextdoor to his and I lost all my work, tools, etc. I was in the process of moving and put all of my things in the studio temporarily, so I also lost most all of my possessions. CERF+ made it possible for me to keep working on commissions I had already started. The grant allowed me to purchase tools and materials to start rebuilding my studio practice.
Now, I have a small studio and am currently looking for something larger. I’ve been able to get additional tools and materials to allow my work to move forward. I work on many things at once in the studio, so it’s a slow process to build up new work and ideas, but I am grateful for the opportunity.
This may sound so strange, but I feel like I have to live longer now to make up for all my lost work. It has shifted my attention in an unexpected way towards long term goals and projects. I realized how important my work was to me once I lost it and I will try to better protect my work from now on.
