Inhabitants of the Studio on the Hill

A fascinating array of characters calls this place home. Well of course,there's me. In addition to artist, I'm also mom, mentor, friend, cook, dog trainer, housekeeper, and, oh yeah..., work a full time job as an ExecutiveAssistant in downtown Seattle. It's a good thing I'm a type A.

My daughter Jenna has been an inhabitant of Studio on the Hill since she was born 19 years ago. She is wonderful and terrible, happy as a lark or shooting murderous looks that stop you in your tracks. Beautiful and smart, funny and so much fun to be around, she is my baby and I do baby her. She knows how to take care of herself but explains that everything is so much better when mom does it for her. Jenna is a rare and exotic bird poised to take flight. She will complete Community College courses in the next year and will move on to the next phase of her life at a four year college. I can't imagine this place or my life without her.

Like her sister, Jenna, Carolie is beautiful, spontaneous and mercurial, but in a different way. At 23, Carolie has matured light years since shewas 19. She now has 2 years of life in Manhattan and 1 year in Denver under her belt and has learned volumes from both experiences. Classes at The New School brought her to Manhattan and love took her to Denver. She is currently back home with us in Seattle along with Noel, her great love, although they will no doubt be moving on in a year or so, possibly to New York City to complete their Bachelor degrees.

Noel Sinclair Boyt is now an inhabitant of Studio on the Hill. Noel is one in a million. He's an amazing artist himself and he fits right into this happily dysfunctional group. Talented, devoted, adaptable, funny and entertaining, Noel is the kind of person that you feel like you've always known and are certain will always be a part of your life in the future. Without Noel's calming influence, Carolie, Jenna and I would be embroiled in weekly, if not daily, bloody battles over the smallest things; a look, an offhand comment, food eaten, clothing borrowed, and on and on and on it goes.

Don is the original inhabitant of Studio on the Hill who now lives in the cottage off of the alley. While he is family, he likes his seclusion. He grows wheatgrass and organic veggies, he builds pyramids, he does not believe in rules, in fact, he's determined to break every rule he can;
Seatbelts? ...no way.
Leash your dog? ...what for?
Get a building permit? ...you don't need one, unless they catch you.
Don's a maverick all right but you can almost always find him at home and chances are, if you know what time it is, you'll know exactly what he's doing at that moment.

Finally, there are the four legged inhabitants of my world. The senior staffer is Tars, the 17-or-something-year old cat that looks like he's lived under a rock in the alley for most of his life, instead of sleeping and scratching in my favorite chair for 22 hours a day. He doesn't rock, but he does rule. Second in seniority is Roscoe, our 5 year old gnarly pit mix who started life at Studio on the Hill as a darling 7 week old "beagle-sharpei" mix. He's a good watch dog and is Don's shadow. 
The newest addition to our cast of characters is Lola, the Frenchbo puppy. A mix of French Bulldog and Boston Terrier, she's a firecracker. Pretty cute, even when she's chewing up my best watercolor brush, all the woodwork and even barfing on my bed (only cute in retrospect). Everybody loves Lola.