Keep asking for what you want

Last week I was able to cross something off my wish list that had been on the list for 12 years: studio space of my own. About a month ago, my friend Amy forwarded on to me an ad from an artist looking for someone to replace her in a coop of artist's spaces. I don't always read these forwards carefully. I just see if they are on a subject of interest to my list serv and forward them on.

It was the address that caught my eye. 11th and Pine SE. That's only 9 blocks down the street. Then I saw the size of the space and the rent and I knew I wasn't forwarding this one. Not until I got a chance to look at it myself. I called Robin Urton, the artist moving out, and went to see it that afternoon. It was just what I was looking for and what I had been wanting all these years.

Most of the dozen or so spaces I've looked at over these years were too much money. Some I just called about and didn't go see. Some were way too far away or in a part of town with no parking, and I knew I'd never go with any frequency. Some were too small or in dark or dirty garages, not really studio spaces at all. Just spaces people wanted to rent out.

So every time I'd get together in a circle with friends and we'd make our wish lists, I'd put "studio space of my own." The last time I did that was on New Year's Eve, 2011. I had no special feeling it would happen soon or this year, but it seemed important to continue to want it. And now I have it. It's important to keep asking for what you really want.