Since you have so much work ahead of you to up-fit your studio space to your liking, be sure and find a place to live that doesn't also require a lot of work.  You want home to be a place where you can crash and enjoy being it without having to do a lot of work to it.

I did think about the space at Fotan and also in Shek Kip Mei, but I wanted to stay in HK island side and be close to a mtr (subway) station. I do know that in Chai Wan, there are many photographer studios in the area, so I will be in a neighborhood of similar people.

It is unfortunate that I have to leave my place, as it's all contained in one space for me to paint, shoot and live. The major drawback to such a multi-functional space is that I am always in the same place. It is time for a change. Transitions like this are never without stress, so I'm trying to keep cool. I have never been fond of packing and unpacking boxes.

On the pricing game, I have to say that Hong Kong love to play the market. I'm in the thick of things now that I have to find a new place to live and work, but this is the reality of it all. You'll hear of enormous gains and enormous losses. For the photographer or artist such as myself, I make certain sacrifices. This situation is just one of them. Most artists in Hong Kong are really doing it part-time, because trying to make a living from it is nearly impossible.

When I think of my new studio, I am mixed with excitement and fear. I can see it being so many things, as it's basically a box with electricity and walls. I can do whatever I want inside to make it work.

Well I know a lot of artists dwell at Fotan Shatin. If there is ever a busy bunch of artists living and working in the same place, it has to be there. There's a creative/free atmosphere I find in Fotan which you may like.

That said I think HK property pricing issues is extortionate, and it is unfair you have been forced out by your landlord. My dad always says 'Property to live in is a basic right for all people/beings'. We all have just as strong a right to live as anyone else - why is it just the landlord alone? When properties are used as a commodity for sale or rent, and especially charged at such high prices it is simply not right. The issue with property has a lot to do with money, as with everything else in life....and money is a real problem. Not in using it, but having it and thinking it is what we all need - that's the real problem. The argument goes if animals do not need money, plants do not need money, why people? There is more than enough resources here on Earth to sustain everybody without having to resort to money. Unless we can be a money-free society, we will never be free of this problem. Luckily there are people who are making this change. There's a website called www.justfortheloveofit.org who believes in a movement called Freeconomics, where the things we want/have in life will not cost anything, but is shared with all, such as travel accomodation. It is envisaged one day we do not have to use money to do/have the things we all would like. The money aspect which plagues our current lives is replaced by a common aspect of our love and respect for each other as a human being. You could say it would be a more communal-spirited age than todays cold, stark and faceless existence.

a lot of people are going to chai wan lately... lots of space out there.