Storage Issues

[Artyczar]

Any of you have storage issues?

For the last year, I moved all my unsold work into a temperature-controlled storage facility. Sounds expensive, but it was quite a large space for $200 a month--and it's a brand new, very secure, place, and that's temperature controlled (big deal). I have at least 250 pieces in there between 20 x 20 inches to 40 x 60 inches, plus my collection of other people's work--maybe 30 pieces. It's a lot of stuff that takes up the whole 10 x 20 foot space. Most everything is on those big industrial shelves. My drums are there too--inside of a big rolling anvil (flight) coffin.

Well, now I really need to save money and I'm going to bring it all here to my garage. The garage is finished here (dry walled and clean, aside from the big electric door). That's a $2400 savings a year. It's going to be a major pain in the ass to move it all. It was a major pain in the ass to move it to the storage place, but it was also a pain in the ass to move--period. The whole thing was so traumatic that it made me not want to paint on canvases or panels ever again because of all the space I need for storage. However, I have painted on a few since I've lived here. I guess I can't not do it, but I feel terrible about it, like I'm making more "stuff" that will take up SPACE!

Do any of you have this issue?

 

[snoball]

Of course! If I were selling instead of piling I might be better off but as it is, I have stacks of paintings everywhere. When I'm gone someone is going to have a heck of a time sorting everything and probably a huge bonfire.
If you are bringing it into a garage area Arty, be sure you store everything off the floor and preferably a bit distant from the walls. You can find different products to control moisture. Like Damp Rid

 

[stlukesguild]

I'm always amazed at the prices of real estate in California, New York, etc... $200 for 200 square feet of storage space? And I paid $750 dollars a month for 20+ years ago for a 700 square foot cold-water-flat studio with a shared restroom down the hall in Jersey City (across the Hudson from Manhattan and the World Trace Center. The studio I just left cost me $155 per month for 750 square feet of studio space plus 400 square feet of storage and a shared (among the artists in our unit only) restroom with a slop sink and cold & warm water. I'll save twice as much after this month when my car is paid off. A lot of the older largely empty warehouses in the area have been zoned "work/live" and I have thought about leasing a larger unit and converting a large portion of it into finished living space. I'd need to be certain of a long-term lease to avoid getting booted out after a year or two due to gentrification. I'd also need safe parking.

 

[stlukesguild]

Of course! If I were selling instead of piling I might be better off but as it is, I have stacks of paintings everywhere. When I'm gone someone is going to have a heck of a time sorting everything and probably a huge bonfire.

That's what will happen to my mad former studio mate. He would have been a serious candidate for "Hoarders"... both his studio and his apartment are packed to the gills. His apartment is so full of crap that he can no longer use his bedroom to sleep on. He sleeps on the couch. No baking either. His stove is filled with books and magazines. He's certain that his sister will collect all his art and put it in a storage space down in Florida until she can have it placed in a museum. Unfortunately, the reality is that she may give a cursory perusal of the mess to see if there's anything she wants... and then the rest will fill several dumpsters.

 

[Artyczar]

Of course! If I were selling instead of piling I might be better off but as it is, I have stacks of paintings everywhere. When I'm gone someone is going to have a heck of a time sorting everything and probably a huge bonfire.
If you are bringing it into a garage area Arty, be sure you store everything off the floor and preferably a bit distant from the walls. You can find different products to control moisture. Like Damp Rid

Yes, my work has always been off the floor and each painting is individually wrapped in bubblewrap (or sometimes plastic). Some of them are still in the bubblewrap and shipping boxes. Here's a pic of half the room when everything was in my old garage. This is only about 75 pieces, there's probably 100 more besides this in the storage space:

 

[snoball]

I like to put waxed paper over the surfaces of mine so they don't stick to any plastic or bubble wrap but that may not be a problem with yours. It can be with oil or acrylic paintings.

 

[Artyczar]

I have ruined paintings with wax paper. I wouldn't use it, because if it gets too hot, it melts! Even though to the back side. I use a paper called Glassine. It's more money of course, but it's what galleries and museums use. I have a roll of it that's lasted a long, long time. I think it was 30 bucks.

 

[snoball]

Yes, of course if all your works are paper, you wouldn't want to use wax paper. I'm familiar with Glassine. It would be perfect for your works, yes.

 

[La_]

wish I had a solution for you and you and you and me ... I've got stacks and piles all over the place and only one little pile outside for campfire ...

 

[Artyczar]

That's a lot La, yes. At least it's inside and neatly stacked.

I have to admit that I've secretly wished my studios in the past would "accidentally" burn down, or the storage space would (but all of it is pretty fireproof). I would be really devastated at first, but I would have no other choice but to move on and start with a clean slate and I would stop feeling bad, or reluctant, to paint on a canvas or a panel. I have a few blanks left, but then what? Buy more? I just can't bring myself to do it anymore. I'd feel guilty as all hell.

Not only that, even my flat files are getting stuffed!

 

[stlukesguild]

I'm struggling to temporarily store all my drawings/paintings in my house for the time being. They are currently rolled up. When I'm able to get the garage cleaned out enough I'm looking into building a table that is big enough for them to be rolled out flat with glassine between each. It is either there or the attic. In either case it would expose the drawings/paintings to high heat... but honestly not more than they have been exposed to in my studio for years. My primary concern right now is getting the drawings unrolled and laying flat.

 

[Roni]

The whole thing was so traumatic that it made me not want to paint on canvases or panels ever again because of all the space I need for storage.

Tell me.

He's certain that his sister will collect all his art and put it in a storage space down in Florida until she can have it placed in a museum. Unfortunately, the reality is ...

I've always admired the landlord of Henry Darger for both, having the artistic feeling to see that there IS art at all and not just waste, and to have the patience (and balls) to keep everything intact in those rooms for 3 decades instead of renting them to the next, which would have make him pretty much money through the years.

 

[Artyczar]

St. Luke, you might want to invest in a few flat, good paper weights, like the kind used in patternmaking (perhaps). I use them and they work great, especially because pattern making paper come in rolls. That's what they're designed for.

Roni, Darger's work goes for a lot of money these days. It might be a toss up on the rent they could have received, but they probably sold it all wholesale, so maybe you're right. He mostly painted on both the front and the backs of the paper, so showing the work usually had to be framed special to hang in the middle of the gallery, or switched out frequently, back to front. I love his work so much.

 

[snoball]

My primary concern right now is getting the drawings unrolled and laying flat.

I'm somewhat concerned about rolling your work with all the gold leafing that you do.

 

[Artyczar]

Paper weights -- over the glassine, of course.

 

[Claude J Greengrass]

I feel your pain but 98% of my artwork is on paper. A years supply is a bit over 1 inch thick and 22x30. So far storage has not been a problem. It's only when I go really big, 3x5 foot, that I have a problem. Then I have to build a wooden cradle to stretch the paper over.

 

[Artyczar]

Claude, do you have flat files for the rest?

 

[Claude J Greengrass]

Claude, do you have flat files for the rest?

The smaller ones, smaller being less that a full sheet (22x30) are stored in clear plastic boxes I sourced from Ikea. The 22x30 are "stored" between foam core sheets in 2 print racks.

 

[Artyczar]

I like that we all have to make do with what we have.

I decided to do the move in July. Yes, it will be hotter, but we need time just to set up shelves and put what's already in the garage on those before we can even think about moving mass amounts of art into the garage. Especially because all the art shelving gets packed first inside the truck, so it's last to come out. I'll have to put the art all over the place while we put up that shelving. What a pain. I'll have to remember to take picture of this sweaty day. Maybe we'll lose a few pounds.

 

[stlukesguild]

I had initially planned on moving out a few things every week from early March until the end of my lease, May 31st. This plan fell apart due to Covid-19. I was unable to get into the studio at all initially... and couldn't get the helpers I needed. My plan then was to simply keep paying the monthly rent because in the midst of this pandemic it was doubtful that the owner was going to be able to get a new tenant. Unfortunately, my former studio partner... yeah, that one ... went crazy and kept calling the landlord complaining that I was invading his space. He even went so far as to change the padlock on the floor lock until the landlord made it clear that doing so was illegal as long as I was paying the rent. This is especially comic when you consider that I was one of the three artists on the original lease before we brought him in. Anyway... our landlord amazingly found two new tenants on short notice and so I was put on the spot, needing to rush and move everything within a two week period. I already had removed my paintings after the idiot vandalized one of them... but I still had a lot of stuff to move... including furniture and stacks of art books and magazines that weigh a ton. I'm glad that the next 5 days are predicted to remain in the low 70s and even the 60s so I can finish up with the new studio and maybe even clear out the attic a bit so I can lay the paintings out flat. For the time being I found closet space in my den/library where all the paintings will fit rolled up and be safe. I found a good buy of glassine on Amazon... and I like your idea of paper weights, Arty, and I will be ordering a number of those as well.