[Pallas] Arranging My Piano Studio

Pallas · 2024-10-21T14:12:49+00:00

Edit: My plans will change approximately 9 million times before this is over. I've enjoyed the various threads about other people's music rooms/studios, so...

Pallas

Ithaca My art is a bit different than that. I enjoy finding things on walks and thrift stores and things, then I drag them home and repurpose them. I found that canvas while walking the dog. It looked like someone put their fist through it and threw it out a window. So I'm going to patch it up and put a new artwork on top of it. It's a paper print glued to stretched canvas!

Ithaca

Pallas I found that canvas while walking the dog. It looked like someone put their fist through it and threw it out a window. So I'm going to patch it up and put a new artwork on top of it. It's a paper print glued to stretched canvas!

I was thinking you were doing an Impressionistic piece, perhaps of paper lanterns over the water. 😂

Street finds are the best!

Pallas

Ithaca I was thinking you were doing an Impressionistic piece, perhaps of paper lanterns over the water. 😂

That actually sounds really nice! I've found some really interesting things in the wild. The last one is an antique milk bottle encrusted with limpets. I had to put it outside to let the limpets give up before I could clean it off. I call myself an artist so it doesn't look like I just have a house full of worthless junk, although an argument can be made that the things are still worthless junk after I'm done too. 😂 My work is mostly figurative, although it is sometimes weird.

Ithaca

Pallas I call myself an artist so it doesn't look like I just have a house full of worthless junk, although an argument can be made that the things are still worthless junk after I'm done too. 😂 My work is mostly figurative, although it is sometimes weird.

To my mind, weird is often good. I live my life amongst people who are much weirder than 98% of the population, and my life is vastly richer as a result.

Re: junk - one of my favorite artists (and a dear acquaintance, who is responsible for most of the trim in my house) is like you: he often find his inspiration and materials in a dumpster, or abandoned on the street.

One of my favorite recent-ish pieces of his is a transformed abandoned dumpster:
https://www.kellygoff.net/#/dumpster

And in the video below, he talks about how his current public-art series began with him hauling massive pipes out of a construction dumpster:

I've been tempted to go dumpster-diving with him in the past - we both have a fondness for wood and construction cast-offs (the more massive the better) - but I'm afraid of getting tetanus or being stuck by an infected needle. In contrast, playing the piano keeps me very clean. 🙂

PianoMonk

Pallas Wow! I really like your artwork.
As for switching rooms... I tend to take the path of least resistance, and unless there is something acoustically troubling you where the piano is now, I wouldn't go through all of that effort. I'd spend the time playing the piano, or doing some more of your fabulous art.

Pallas

Nightowl

How lovely to have the space for two dedicated hobby rooms - luxury!

Just one thing - are you sure you have enough music books? 🙃

Pallas

Nightowl Just one thing - are you sure you have enough music books?

Just so you know, every time you ask me a rhetorical question, I'm going to buy myself another piano book. Use your power wisely.🙃

Nightowl

Pallas Ha ha ha, noted! 🤣 <Goes online to buy shares in music publishing company.>

ShiroKuro

Pallas Just so you know, every time you ask me a rhetorical question, I'm going to buy myself another piano book

OMG I love this!!!

Hmmm how can internal it for my spouse… (he’s not big on rhetorical questions)

Pallas

ShiroKuro Hmmm how can internal it for my spouse… (he’s not big on rhetorical questions)

Does he swear? 😂 Snore? My husband would get a lot of Lego sets if he bought one every time I lost control of my vocabulary.

ShiroKuro

Hmm, he's kind of forgetful and absent minded... One time, we had meat in the freezer. But we also sometimes put food waste in the freezer if it's several days before trash pick up, so that it doesn't smell. So maybe every time he has a mental slip? I need a catchy phrase for it though...

Speaking of phrases, autocorrect still sucks. I wrote "how can I tweak it" and got "how can internal" 🙄

ShiroKuro

To get this thread back on track though... I meant to say -- Wow! I love your artwork! What beautiful pieces!

I can't wait to see what you do with swapping these two spaces!

Pallas

ShiroKuro What beautiful pieces!

Thank you!

Pallas

Ithaca I totally get that. My husband and I volunteer for a coast watch organization and we often go hunting for beach trash, and there's a big yuck element to it. If we can't pick it up with a trash grabber, we have to decide how to deal with it. If it's gross or dangerous, we just report in! I'm absolutely sure I'd never stick my hand blind into a dumpster! Yikes!

I watched the video. I love public art, and I love his philosophy and world view (and especially his art!) Thank you so much for sharing it with me.

ShiroKuro

Btw @Pallas are you going to try to move your upright by yourself or will you hire movers?

iternabe

ShiroKuro Btw @Pallas are you going to try to move your upright by yourself or will you hire movers?

If on the same floor, it can be done with a basketball, a bicycle pump, and a dolly.

Pallas

ShiroKuro That's a good question. I think I'll ask my piano tech his opinion. There's a transition strip between the studios, and I would feel scared to try to lift the piano over it. I didn't pay attention to how the piano movers got the dolly over the transition strip.

Pallas

My first battle plan did not survive first contact.

So, I'm opening up my project for further thinking. The studio is not just these 2 rooms. We have a 3-story house, 3,000 square feet, 1100 of which is the art studio, which I share with my husband the Warhammer / Lego / RPG / board game master. I am thinking about leaving the upright in place and bringing up some furnishings that would not fit in my daughter's apartment. (She just passed the New York bar exam WOO! 🎉🌈💥.)

I'm not quite ready to buy the grand piano after thinking about it more. I have a lot more to do first. I thought I might go for a Yamaha S7X, but I don't know yet. It's a big decision. The front room is large enough for a semi-concert grand, but I'm not sure the piano studio is large enough for the pro photography setup I need for my art. So there are many moving parts. I got overexcited! 🤣

We've also considered finding an old piano and converting it into a tack piano for the game room, which definitely means movers to get a piano up a flight of stairs, so I think I'll be working on my plans for a while yet. (This sounds crazy until you read the piano moving scene in The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart, where he gets a grand piano into his tiny Paris apartment!)

ShiroKuro

Pallas what is a tack piano?

Re your other comments, hmm, it sounds like you have lots of options. but also lots to deal with first.

The Yamaha C7X is a great piano in a great size! But, you might find that a smaller grand works better, for example, in terms of having seating and other functional spaces in addition to the piano…

Seeker

Pallas That is a VERY fancy bench you have. Italian? No more lower back pain?

Pallas

Seeker It is, in fact, a very fancy Italian bench. I have arthritis in my lumbar spine, and it does help, but not magically. I still have to do PT also.