During the COVID-19 pandemic, many have had to pivot in some way or another. A change in direction or shift has helped many businesses and organizations survive.
A couple of Kingston artists did a “pandemic pivot” of their own.
Rhonda Evans admits she’s one of the lucky ones by being able to create throughout the pandemic.
She does so at the Glocca Morra studio, located on Highway 15 in Kingston East.
“For me, having this greenhouse space is just another reduce, reuse, repurpose and it’s a perfect fit,” says Evans.
As the farming operations have changed at Glocca Morra, the greenhouse was a space ripe with possibility.
Evans had previously been working out of the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning.
“I decided that on May 1st, I was going to start packing and moving things from there to my basement,” she says.
“My friend Lisa, who also worked at the Tett Centre with me, had already been cutting her wood out here and was using the front of this greenhouse to do that in.”
Lisa Morrissey, Rhonda’s friend, has also been busy in her move to the greenhouse, and she loves it.
“It’s great in the fact that we feel like we’ve got the outside in,” she says.
“It’s very airy and very bright, it’s great for working. We’ve built it from scratch — it was a greenhouse that housed plants, now it houses art.”
The new, much larger studio also gives both a chance to spread their artistic wings, but it wasn’t easy.
“We laughed, there were a lot of laughs doing this,” says Morrissey.
“But we laughed and said we’re two 50-something-year-old menopausal women with power tools and we just kept going, and it’s amazing what we have accomplished.”
Things will continue to evolve at Glocca Morra, a one-time dairy operation, farm fresh produce stand and food truck — and now art studio.