Miriam's art studio—a brief history

Finding adequate studio space for an artist can be challenging, even if an artist owns their own home. For this reason, many artists choose to rent outside studio space. Miriam has been fortunate to have a dedicated art studio in her home for most of her career.

Miriam drawing and painting at Inlet Beach, Florida, 2018..

A permanent space to create art

1973-2014

In the early 1970’s, Miriam lived in an apartment complex in Birmingham off Montclair Road. When she moved into a home in the late 1970’s, the home came with a garage converted into a large family room with high ceilings and superb light. Initially the room doubled as a playroom for her son, Frank, though it later became a dedicated art studio and has remained so for forty years. And the studio itself has been the both the subject of and inspiration for many of Miriam’s works.

Then came the flood—again

2014-2015

Over the years, many have helped improve the studio storage and functionality. Several groups and individuals from Briarwood Church in Birmingham donated their time to upgrade and renovate the studio. Although the studio was flooded in the 1990s, in 2014 the studio significantly flooded after heavy spring rain with over a foot of water getting into the studio. Fortunately, most of the paintings were safely off the floor on stands, so there was very little water damage to the artwork except for a few drawings. Remediating the water damage and remodeling the studio took over a year of work, during which time all the work had to be moved into storage. Walls were removed and replaced, electrical brought up to code, new storage shelving created, and a complete inventory of Miriam’s work begun.

A studio reborn

2015-2020

The Birmingham art studio continued to serve as a working creative space and climate-controlled storage for all Miriam’s art until 2021 when COVID-19 concerns caused Miriam to sell the Birmingham home and studio space to move to Crossville, Tennessee to be with her son, Frank. Miriam’s Crossville studio will be built in the fall of 2021 with storage space, a studio, and small gallery plus plenty of surrounding natural beauty  for inspiration and plein air painting. We look forward to sharing the new Drawing on the Promises Studio space when it is completed in 2022.