The Rambling of the a Nomadic Designer

From The urban villa - Stamford CT 31^st January 2012

Today I start a new journey with this blog. My partner has urged me for some time to start this posting of my ‘ramblings” so here goes. Let me start by explaining the title, my week finds me dividing my time between “the Urban Villa” in Stamford Ct (population 122,643), and the country cottage in Beacon Falls CT (population 5866). This is a relatively new development in the life, until the day in January 2008 when I met my partner Rob, I had spent my entire life in sleepy little Beacon Falls never having lived more than 10 miles from the house than I grew up in. 

I never ever really went away to college, my degree in Interior Design comes from Paier college of art – a small art school located in Hamden & New Haven CT – both less than 20 miles away. Even when I was married and raising a family, we lived in either Naugatuck or back in Beacon Falls. In fact after my separation and eventual divorce, I moved back into my childhood home, which my parents and I had converted into a duplex. I figured that the rest of my life would be spent in Beacon Falls and was content. I came out of the closet, was making new friends and was fairly happy. 

 So little did I know that when I met rob that I would become “the Nomadic Designer”. The thing was rob has a condo in the Glenbrook section of Stamford and when I accepted a position running the Kitchen design department with a company in nearby Norwalk it became clear that commuting 45 minutes to an hour and a half each way (depending on traffic) would not be practical, so into the condo I moved.

However, this was still only a 2 bedroom condo with limited storage and it was already full of rob’s own lifetime accumulation’s, so much of my things stayed in Beacon Falls. The other component was that there was no spot for me to set up an easel. I have been painting since college and could not abandon that part of myself. So begin my nomadic existence. It varies week to week, but most weeks since I was off from my design job Sunday and Monday, I would head up to Beacon Falls: aka the Valley, sometime after church and come back on Tuesday morning in time for my staff meeting. 

Sounds like fun? Not always! Often I’m looking for something, only to realize that it is at the “other” house, oh well! I’ve gotten the point where most of my wardrobe is here in Stamford, with some things being left in Beacon Falls. The terms “Urban Villa” for the Condo and the “country Cottage” for the duplex started as a joke several years ago and just sort of grew on us. 

The last year and a half have brought many new challenges and changes to my life, both work and personal.2 years ago after some searching I found an interesting organization that I have become very involved in -  the Fairfield County artists Association . I am now their treasurer. Threw FCAA I participated in my first ever public art show last December and have been in several since, at one point summer being in 3 shows at the same time! I also thru chairing a show at the Lockwood-Matthews mansion museum in Norwalk have become an active volunteer at the mansion, leading tours on Fridays as one of the docents – I job that I love. If you have the opportunity to visit the mansion – it is a magnificent structure. 

Anyways folks , here’s my first posting- in future postings I’ll expound more on Design , my paintings , my travels between the two extremely different abodes and life in general as a Gay man trying to balance life between two homes and the Straight and gay worlds

Hugs

David