Artists’ touch
Uros Jelic and Nadia Tasci scrimped, saved and bought a house with a garage they could convert into a studio
It’s an evocative time of year for Nadia Tasci and Uros Jelic. Their home’s garden area has an arbour of grape vines, flower-filled terra cotta pots, plus veggies and herbs growing in beds, and a flourishing pear tree.
“Our place has a very Mediterranean feel. It reminds me of summers in Dubrovnik,” he says of the Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea.
The couple’s house, purchased last year for $520,000, is something they were able to buy after massive scrimping and saving — including selling their car.
Their home, in the city’s Keele St. and Eglinton Ave. W. Silverthorn neighbourhood, is much more than a house and garden — it also includes their private studio and workshop that they created from what was an old and dilapidated garage.
Jelic renovated and revitalized the structure into a light-filled, ventilated and heated space where, sideby-side, the couple works their arts.
Tasci, 40, is a talented glass blower who designs and crafts unique jewelry she sells around the world, as well as teaches her art.
Jelic, 38, is a respected painter who earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia, the city where he grew up.
“We’re so proud of our home and our art,” Tasci says.
“It’s never easy pursuing these types of careers. We had to sell our car and use every cent to buy this place. But we still get to practise our arts.”
Before the studio, though, came the house. Renovations were needed to restructure the living space for the couple and their two children, Katya, 6, and Theo, 2, before they moved in just over a year ago.
Their $5,000 budget included creating an open-concept dining-living room which, today, is highlighted with Jelic’s large, striking canvas of an Australian aboriginal man kneeling with a fire alight in his canoe.
“It’s part of a series depicting hunter-gatherer cultures from around the globe I did in 2013,” he explains.
Refurbishing their house and studio took Jelic six months, working at both his part-time day job and then at his home in the evenings. “I didn’t want to manage anyone — I thought it would take longer,” he says, explaining why he did the work himself.
“It was equally difficult for both Uros and I,” says Tasci, who was unable to work her craft during the six-month reno. “Fortunately, we’ve always been a good team and we’re both hard workers.”
And their hard work has paid off. The couple’s studio space in the 200square-foot converted garage was a priority, even before they bought the property.
“We looked at every listing for sale in many neighbourhoods,” Jelic says. “We needed to have a garage.”
He approached the refurbishment with the eye, and sensibilities, of an artist. After the decaying roof was replaced — the most expensive part of the project at about $1,500 — he began removing the garage’s worn exterior covering. Beneath it, Jelic happily discovered a pastel-toned siding that was in good shape.
“I took a bucket and began washing it all by hand,” he says of the turquoise panels he cleaned and refinished. “The colour was lovely. It took getting many, many paint samples, but I was finally able to match it.”
Another special feature is the large, modern window that now stands where the old garage panel-door used to be. “That window didn’t cost anything,” Jelic notes. “Our neighbour was going to throw it away.”
All told, with ventilation, insulation and heating, and Jelic’s sweat equity, the studio cost the couple about $5,000.
The couple met when both were artists living in the Dundas West Arts Building, in the Junction Triangle. They moved from there to the Artscape Wychwood Barns’ live/work accommodations for artists and their families.
“The large painting in the living room was done in my previous studio, using acrylic on panel,” Jelic says. “I had a solo exhibition at Galerie St-Laurent Hill in Ottawa in September of the same year (2013), where this work was featured.”
Tasci, who studied at OCAD University, displays and sells her work at the One of a Kind shows in Toronto. “I’ve been doing that for 10 years,” she says. “I teach and I have special clients, like one in Tokyo, that puts on pop-up jewelry sales regularly.”
Their new neighbourhood has presented new inspirations, with its abundance of houses and lowrise buildings. “Everything is low and you can see the sky,” Jelic says. “At night you can sometimes see the stars” Tasci adds. “That’s unusual for Toronto.”
As well, it is opening new opportunities for home-based exhibits. The couple will host their first outdoor studio show on Sunday, June 4, from 1p.m. to 5 p.m., at 69 Trowell Ave. For more, visit tascidesigns.com and facebook.com/urosjelicartist.