Newsletter, December 14, 2024
I missed the publication deadline for the newsletter this month, but I have a good excuse: I'm in the middle of packing up the Dumbo studio and moving its contents to a shiny new storage space in...
Dear friends, family, and colleagues,
I missed the publication deadline for the newsletter this month, but I have a good excuse: I'm in the middle of packing up the Dumbo studio and moving its contents to a shiny new storage place in Maspeth.
Where, you may be wondering, is Maspeth? Maspeth is a bare-knuckled industrial neighborhood in Queens, across Newtown Creek from Bushwick, which, according to Wikipedia facts, owes its name to the Mespeatches Native Americans, one of Long Island's early tribes. Translated, “Maspeth” means either “an inundating tidal river” or, less poetically, “at the bad waterplace,” likely inspired by the area's many stagnant swamps back in the day. I’m hoping that my work’s new home, situated on a gentle hill overlooking the LIE, won’t sustain any water damage from flooding or other disastrous weather events.
Once all my work and the Two Coats of Paint archive are safely stored, I’ll be heading to Dublin for a couple of weeks. As the new studio plan unfolds, I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, please enjoy the holidays as well as these pictures of a key logistical phase of the journey, as it were. (Trigger warning for artists: you may be unsettlingly reminded of all the studios you’ve lost and moves you’ve endured over the years.)
Gratitude: Heartfelt thanks to all who stopped by the Open House last week. Your generous support—via mugs, paintings, and assorted other acquisitions—ensures the continuation of Two Coats into the next year. For those who snagged paintings on Instagram: your parcels are now at the mercy of UPS. To past benefactors and yet-uninitiated readers who have yet to contribute — fret nyet, there’s still time. Truly, no gift is too small. Just click here.
Social media update: Instagram has a new privacy and copyright policy. What does it mean? I don’t know, but in a fit of preemptive paranoia, I wiped 12 years of posts and locked down the @sharon_butler account, mostly to keep Instagram from exploiting my old images, in case that’s what they have in mind. While I was at it, I expunged my personal accounts on Tumblr, Facebook, Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky. For friends and readers still navigating those socials, please keep following and sharing the content on the Two Coats of Paint feed. Bonus: The daily drawing series (originally posted on IG 2016–2020) will emerge as a book. Stay tuned for more news on that.
In conclusion, let’s enjoy the next two weeks before we stumble into whatever the hellish new year has in store. The January newsletter should arrive at your inbox on the 13th. Best wishes for a joyful holiday to one and all.
Sláinte!
Sharon