By Thomas Thorspecken
The studio I am renting in Lake County Florida already had a bed frame and mattress. Since I have a mattress and box spring, I simply stacked them all on top of one another. To get into bed I have to step onto my flat file and then roll on in.
When I had my surgery several months ago that neutered me sexually, my sister came to the studio to be sure there were no horrible side effects. We agreed that I shouldn’t be performing a high jump to get into bed so she slept in the Princes and the Pea bed.
My sister is a bit older than I am and it took some coaching to convince her it was easy to get up into the bed. Once she was up for the first time, she felt more comfortable. Getting out of bed is far more easy, you just slide off the ledge and end up in a standing position. She enjoyed the process of getting out of bed, it makes the morning routine more of an adventure.
I work all day at my Disney desk, or out on location sketching. I just return to the bedroom to collapse and sleep. Drawings and art keep stacking up on top of the flat files. The stack hasn’t reached the ceiling yet so there is plenty of room for more art. To do this sketch I sat in a small reclining chair that I was using for the first time. It has a back massage settings, but I turned that off while sketching since it would have been distracting.
My life is in a strange limbo right now, so there is no reason to unpack every storage crate. Everything might go into storage in an instant, or I might commit to finding a home/studio of my own. I am committed to renting the Lake County Studio through the end of May. In June I need to decide where “home” might be. I have been working non stop since I got here and haven’t had the time to discover the local arts scene. Home could be anywhere I decide to start sketching next. My life could literally turn in any direction. I have no ties. I am a tumbleweed.