Lofty Ambitions
A painter in Boston's burgeoning artists' neighborhood finds peace inside his thick walls.
ARTIST DENNIS CHEANEY KEEPS A SMALL EASEL SET UP AT AN ANGLE TO the tall south-facing windows of his Fort Point Channel loft. The view from his sixth-floor home and studio shows an industrial landscape in transition: a vast parking lot full of US Postal Service vans, a section of the new Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, its swooping white roofs shimmering in the sun. A large crane stands like an artist's vertical perspective against the horizontals of roof, road, and skyline.
By contrast, the 9-inch-by-12-inch square of canvas on the easel shows the most intimate of scenes: a still life of two eggs, a yellow pear, and a glass container of oil resting on a draped cloth. Cheaney, founder of the New England Realist Art Center, is an advocate of meticulously observed and rendered detail. The nudes, still lifes, and portraits that line a nearby wall are in a style that art lovers of three or four centuries ago could appreciate. The space in which Cheaney works, however, is as contemporary as the view out of the windows.
"We only moved in four months ago," says Cheaney's wife, Agata Smogorzewska, a resident in clinical pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital. "We love the light up here."
"We came to Boston from New York City, where there is really no such thing as a developed community for artists like this," Cheaney says. "Here the rents are quite reasonable, the spaces are large, and we get to live with other creative people."
"Here" is Midway Studios, a set of three adjoining warehouses that the Fort Point Development Collaborative recently finished renovating into live/work spaces for artists of all sorts. Spaces range in size from slightly less than the 1,000 square feet occupied by Cheaney and Smogorzewska to much larger flats and duplexes.
While the complex appealed to them from the beginning ("We were living in a hole on Beacon Hill," says Smogorzewska), gaining a toehold was not a simple procedure. "It reminded me of the struggle to get housing in socialist Poland!" Smogorzewska, who grew up in Warsaw, says with a laugh. "Getting on lists and then the forms and the permits and all the waiting. But it was well worth it in the end."
All the spaces feature sandblasted plank-and-beam ceilings, polished concrete floors, and tall industrial windows. Cheaney and Smogorzewska, who pay $1,425 in rent per month for their unit, decided that the concrete floor was too gloomy for them and installed wood laminate from IKEA that they hauled up the six flights of stairs (the elevators were not yet working). But being on the top floor of the building has the advantage of a large skylight above the kitchen-dining area, which is farthest from the windows yet filled with natural light.
The loft is simply furnished, with storage units that wall off the sleeping area, black-leather seating, and a long mission-style table with chairs under the skylight. Unlike many Midway residents, Cheaney and Smogorzewska elected not to "build out" to differentiate between living and working spaces.
"We liked the open feel," he says, "and we didn't want to interfere with the light moving through the room."
Cheaney finds he likes working at home not only because of that wonderful natural illumination, but also for the deep quiet he finds inside these thick industrial walls. And for this bonus: The space's interior, he says, provides a backdrop "perfect for portraits."
Homework Tips
The Human Network: Knowing which friends and neighbors work at home and are willing to share a fax machine or a scanner can help when things go wrong. It can also cut down on the isolation that comes with working alone at home. Make it a point to go out for lunch, take a walk with a friend, or meet a fellow home worker for a cup of coffee.
Morgan Mead is a freelance writer. He can be reached at MorganNMead@aol.com. 