The lovely Matt called me at work one day.
We didn’t know each other and I didn’t know Work-Shop, yet. Nevertheless he coolly introduced himself and buttered me up with what I quickly learned to be his inimitable sweet-boy charm.
The chances of his call being a success were slim to begin with. My colleagues, who were much harder workers than me, would not have entertained this flight of fancy from a sweet-boy Sydney-lad who called with an idea about bringing Work-Shop to Brisbane.
However, it was a very welcome phone call. I was in the middle of thinking how far the depths of my incompetency could go while bluffing and bumbling around with Photoshop, praying no-one noticed as I pretended I knew what I was doing.
After a quick google search, and learning to add in a hyphen to the middle of workshop, it became obvious that this Work-Shop business was pretty awesome.
Matt had seen our space on the social media’s and wondered perhaps could Work-Shop be held at our shop. I had to let him down gently, that he could use our space, but not in the way he imagined. It just wasn’t right. So we hung up with our dreams dashed and I got back to my bumbling. Dreams don’t land on soft ground during 9 to 5.
But the thought wouldn’t go away. It was truly an ass that needed slapping and who better to do the slapping than our fearless leader and artiste par excellence, Ellie.
I knew Ellie through working together, her amazing art, and for her almost legendary party ethic. She was a true party soldier with crazy charisma matched by a healthy dose of crazy. But in a good way – you know?
Straight away I thought of Ellie. She would be perfect as head honcho for the Brisbane arm of Work-Shop, but she would really need to have her arm twisted. She had some frustrating experiences with projects in the past which she explained to me with real exasperation. I got the feeling most artists share in this experience of being shit upon by shitty people who like to throw their shit around.
But this didn’t sound shitty to me. After a period of some serious coercing, and shameless nagging, Ellie agreed to get in touch with Matt. Soon Matt flew up from Sydney and we all sat down for a beer. Finally I was to witness this sweet-boy charm firsthand.
After proudly playing match-maker to these two titans of industry I took my leave and watched the majesty of Work-Shop Brisbane unfold. I was a little sad to be left to my own inadequate devices but got to enjoy the constant updates of progress as I languished in my proximity to greatness.
Things happened fast thereafter.
Within three months Work-Shop Brisbane was ready to go. The space at South Brisbane had been found, classes had been pencilled in and promptly inked and word was starting to spread.
Next was the launch party. We took one photo that night, which was almost a year ago now, and we are thinking maybe another party is in order. It was pretty epic.
@workshopbrisbane – facebook.com/workshopbrisbane