“Okay Marvin, so what do you want to contribute to this piece? Oh! Alright, I guess we’ll add it in.” *draws a cartoon nun

The wall opposite the windows in our studio living room space has been blank ever since we moved here over a year ago. In a stroke of inspiration, involving Thanksgiving break recreation time, Sean used a Montana Paint Pen to draw a collage of faces, shapes, patterns, and figures on the wall. That was the easy part of the design. The following three weeks involved coloring in and filling in the outlines of the shapes on the wall. Sean rallied friends, old roommates, and his boyfriend to help him color in the wall along the way. As the temperature fell, Sean’s motivation to perform tasks and projects at home rose. It was remarkable just how invested Sean became with the projects that he had been putting off for some time. As his roommate, I looked back to a few months ago when he shared with me a photo of some painted faces on a wall in a café in Brooklyn. I remember just how excited he got after having shown me the photo, and how he wanted to do the same thing back here in tresor space.

It’s funny how we plan for events that we host back here at tresor space. We start work on pet/improvement projects when there are sufficient funds, enough motivation, and a specific due by date so that we can immediately get gratification and validation from visitors. It’s definitely 50% selfless and 50% selfish reasoning behind the work that we do. The gratification and validation of our work on our own, and seeing friends enjoy the hard work that we pour into this space make it all worth it.
*Note: Sometimes it’s more 80% selfishness, since we’re millennials and instant gratification is a good motivator.