Who knew it would be so easy?

Not Briggs. But she did it anyway.

And now she lives in a Salt Lake City studio, where she recently sold her first two pieces.

"Just realizing this dream has unleashed a lot of creativity," she says.

The proceeds from the two paintings are not going to pay the rent forever, but she thinks living in the new Artspace City Center, 230 S. 500 West, might give her a chance.

"I got a unit with a nice window, where there is enough room for signage," she says. "There's so much positive energy here."

Briggs was one of the first tenants to roost at the newest urban-revitalization project by Artspace, a Utah-based nonprofit that helps provide affordable housing for artists.

The building, which was once the site of the now-defunct ZCMI's original distribution center, is now home to 18 working artists and several other studio/office spaces for arts organizations. It joins Pierpont Avenue and the Salt Lake Rubber Company in formerly run-down areas of town to get the Artspace touch.

These days, a building in Salt Lake City's Gateway District can hardly be considered located in an up-and-coming part of town, but Artspace Executive Director Jessica Norie says it was when the group got the funding to buy it in 1997.

"Artists are usually the first to take a chance on rougher neighborhoods, and then they move on to the next when the land values increase," she says. "The exciting thing about this project is we own the building so, hopefully, we won't be going through that again."

Norie says Artspace is still waiting to hear if leases on Pierpont Avenue will be renegotiated.

"We are not giving up on that project," she says. "There are some family matters involving the owners of that building and we are hopeful that once it is resolved, we can work something out."

Briggs, a former Sugar House resident who has lived in the building for two months, says she has noticed some drug and prostitution activity "trying to happen" in the area. But that has subsided as the building has started to fill.

"The city has come in and revived the landscaping, trimmed the bushes back and it isn't so much of a place for transients to sleep," she says.

These days Briggs, who gave up her traditional day job as a graphic artist, spends a lot of time and money at Home Depot and Lowe's trying to fix up her place. In keeping with her new start on life, the new grandmother also sold all of her furniture and is decorating in a more modern style in keeping with the sparse industrial look of the building.

Artspace's center is easily recognizable because of the glass atrium that runs through the middle of the building. The space that was once occupied by trains waiting to be loaded is now filled with greenery.

The building is also full of people.

At the time of the first gallery stroll at the building, only one of the 18 live/work spaces for artists remained vacant. Other tenants include the offices of the Utah Arts Festival and Art Access, which have relocated from other Artspace buildings.

The average studio is 1,300 square feet. Tenants pay about $900 a month for a live/work space on a year-to-year lease. Artspace used to impose an income threshold for occupants. Norie says Artspace is moving away from that policy.

"Unless there is a problem with the rent not being paid or some other issue like a disturbance problem, we don't want them to move out," she says. "We try not to be too invasive on people's finances and such because artists, like anybody else, can have good years and bad years."

Should a vacancy come open, artists are free to submit samples of their work to the Artspace board, who tries to jury which artist is most in need.

"We try to not make it so much about the art as it is about the artist and what they want to accomplish," Norie says.