The kindest of people thought of me to be their studio-sitter this summer.
You know that feeling of not realizing how much you miss something that you haven’t had in so long?
That’s what I’m feeling right now… plus the pure bliss of having a quiet space to be alone and work.
It’s so good!
Lori Joy Smith 
Your borrowed studio has a grand history.
When we first moved to Charlottetown in the winter of 1993, renowned lawyer Lester O’Donnell (http://ekpei.ca/071XC.html) had just died.
As it happens, Lester’s office was in the building next door to where I was working at the time at the PEI Crafts Council and the two buildings were both owned by Shawn Murphy (later to become MP for Charlottetown but at the time simply also a local lawyer).
Shawn’s property caretaker happened to be in my office one day when I was expressing a desire to locate a studio for Catherine, and he said “well, Lester O’Donnell’s just died and you could rent his office.”
And that’s just what we did: Catherine moved in a few days later, and for the 2 years we lived and worked in Charlottetown Lester’s office played the dual role of studio for Catherine and living room for us (our tiny apartment at Great George and Dorchester, steps away, was missing one).
When we moved to Kingston, PEI in 1995 Catherine reluctantly gave up the studio, handing it over to the artist Ben Stahl. Ben rented the studio for 13 years and we’d often see him on the park bench out front on warm summer days.
One such warm summer day in 2008 I stopped to chat. “How’s the studio?” I asked. “I’m thinking of moving out,” said Ben.
We’d been back in Charlottetown, on Prince Street, since 2000 and Catherine had long pined for her old studio space. Hearing it might become available again, I ran — RAN! — home and told Catherine.
A couple of calls later, and she was back in and she’s been there ever since.
It’s a wonderful, wonderful space and it’s great that you’re able to profit from it again.
Think of Lester while you make.
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Coincidentally, I was just telling someone today about how we once had to “sue a dead lawyer” because of a mistake he’d made drawing up a property description on a deed (resulting in us building our first home on land we didn’t technically own, though we should have). Yup… was thinking of Lester today myself…
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Fantastic. Enjoy the space.
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