Back in the Van
I am back in the van. I spent much of last week filled with the joy of getting back to building my home.
After spending time reminding myself of where I had got too pre-covid I decided the easiest and most satisfying thing I can do is to get the shell of my home completed. I am building inwards from the external walls, slowly transforming the space from a van to a home with every layer I add. I figure with the blank canvas of a completed shell it will be easier to work on the next layer and the one after that. With that in mind I am moving between jobs, allowing paint to dry and materials to arrive, giving myself space to feel capable of different tasks at different moments. Hopefully these bits will fall together soon, and the inside of my van will be transformed from metal box to warm and welcoming home.
Last week these jobs included putting in the window, starting the insulation and wood panelling for the sliding door, beginning to build my spice rack and starting my ceiling. I also did the first primer coat of white paint on the walls.
The transformation created by the window and the paint is startling. Even with so many bits and pieces still in the works, even with so much still clearly incomplete, only just started or not yet begun, having a window and white walls fundamentally changes the feeling inside.
The power of colour and light cannot be underestimated.
The first time I went to Barcelona I walked around Gaudi’s buildings and park in awe. I’d thought, after 5 years of university level arts education, that I understood how to use colour and light, that I understood how they work and what they do. When I met Gaudi’s work in person for the first time, I realised I had only the most minimal understanding. What he does, how he uses light and colour to transform space is, quite genuinely, beyond me. Since that day I have been challenging myself, trying to understand his genius a little bit better, trying to use it in my own art.
After putting down the roller and stepping back to look at the van, I realised that some small piece of Gaudi’s transformative magic had begun in my tiny home. We all know air, good lighting, and white walls can make a small space seem larger, and it has.
But it is more than this.
It has also made it feel more welcoming ad more exciting. It has taken it from a work in progress to a space in which imagination can exist.
All that, and I still have two more coats and heaps of work left before the shell is complete and I can move on to building inwards one new layer at a time. I look forward to sharing the walls and ceiling once they are complete.