In life and art, Peter Classen and Danielle Reddy have found common ground in Fleetwood.
The North Surrey neighbourhood is home to their shared studio, Tache Noir, a creative space for Classen's drawings and Reddy's woodwork.
In French, the name means a messy, black stain on society, Classen explained with a laugh in a converted garage, where the couple spends time making beautiful things while getting dirty.
"We wanted it to be a place that everybody felt welcome, where somebody could come by at 8 o'clock in the morning with their coffee and and sit down and read a book for the afternoon while we did this or that.
"We tell people, 'Please don't take your shoes off when you come to this space.' It's common knowledge that you don't wear white in here."
Long known for his photography, Classen pivoted to large-scale charcoal drawings during the pandemic years.
Reddy, too, discovered woodwork during COVID, at the high school where she works.
"I was put in a shop class and realized, 'Hey, I like this!'" she said with a smile. "Peter was drawing and needed a crate to deliver an art piece. I was like, 'Oh, I could probably take that on. I've learned a lot of things being in the shop!' It started there."
Her DreddyMade creations include charcuterie boards and various sizes and shapes, bathboards, lounge chairs, bike and wine holders, "honeycomb" and towel shelves, and more.
Made-to-order of walnut, Reddy's bathboards can include wine glass holder, coffee cup inset, tealight holder, phone/tablet holder and hand towel cutout.
"I came in here and just started playing around, learning to make stuff," she said. "It was just for fun, a hobby. It wasn't really until this year where I was selling things. When that huge order came in, it became something more."
Last fall, "that huge order" involved making 886 charcuterie boards for a client who had discovered Reddy's work on Facebook Marketplace. With a deadline in January and a calculation that she'd need to make 15 of the boards daily, Reddy went to work with Classen's help.
"That was 74 days straight of being in here," she recalled, "but we got them done."
The boards were gifted to residents of King George Hub, the development at King George Station in Surrey.
"I help," Classen said with a smile, "but she does the planning, plotting and tells me what to do. I get to stand there with a sander and then she goes over it after I finished. The woodwork stuff is all her."
Photography is still a creative outlet for Classen, but drawing is what really drives him these days.
"I've always known that I wanted to draw big, amazing faces," he said. "I once saw a charcoal drawing of Miles Davis that I was pretty blown away by, because it really reminded me of black-and-white photography, which I've been doing for 30 years. Transposing the images that I've been capturing into a charcoal drawing just felt like a really nice step for me to take."
A quote on Classen's website speaks volumes: There's something very primal about smearing burnt sticks on pulverized tree.
"My drawings have taken off over the past few years, which is quite surprising," Classen admitted. "I think the transition was smooth only because of the number of people who were following me through photography into the image-making. They liked my photography but they also wanted to have a piece of my work, but not necessarily my photography, as part of their home space."
Together, Classen and Reddy have created new adventures in art.
"I think we see more of future in these two activities for us, where they line up with who we are individually and collectively," Classen said. "The things that we enjoy in life are meeting wonderful people and travelling. Our travel cat, Leo, comes with us in our hippie van. It's good."
