(From NY Times)Something I have found about myself is that I have a fascination with miniatures, so this article and photo in the NY Times really caught my eye.
Sturgis Warner, an actor and theater director, builds miniature sets in his apartment to help him with decisions regarding movements and placements in his theater pieces. The one pictured is so cool, and wouldn't it be a nice place for some stop motion?
He also uses his past experience in set design to aid him in finding wonderful ways of using a small space to your advantage. His bathroom converts into a darkroom complete with black tarps that roll down like blinds on the walls. He's facing eviction, however, because the original owners of the building, the producers of the Blue Man Group, want to convert the space into residences for their group.
Warner also mentions that when he first came to NY it was perhaps "easier" to "make" it as an artist, but nowadays, you have to earn a full time income just to get by with the essentials. He says, "To be an artist in NY, low overhead is everything...If you have low overhead, you have a show."
I think that's also true wherever you are, and it's seems to be harder and harder. I guess that's why I'm choosing to forego the city and try to make ends meet more easily somewhere else (although I don't exactly have a choice anyway).
It also got me thinking, can't we possibly look at everyone's home/space as a Wunderkammer (in an anthropological/sociological/ethnographic kind of way)? Hmm, I'm going to chew on that a bit. On that note, there's a great documentary by Chris Smith about people with super quirky homes; it's called Home Movie.
