Another season, another residency. When I set out for Leonardsville in central New York state, in early September, I packed the studio materials to do some work where grief was not the impetus. I wanted to return to my exploration of gesture as both a reflection of mindset and how physically shifting one’s gesture works as a catalyst for a shift in mindset.

But I called it in my previous entry: grief is something you step in and out of. And you are not in control of your feet.

I’m two days away from the end of a month-long residency in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is an intimate and quiet residency, just you and one other resident in the home of artis Carolyn Clayton and artist blacksmith Ben Westbrook. Walkaway House is a former dentist office and, further back, a funeral parlour. The residency is named the Tend Residency.

Tend: to care for or look after; give one's attention to.

An appropriately named residency for me right now.

Connecting with people was a great byproduct of this two week Brechtian experiment at Hospitalfield AIR in Arbroath, Scotland. I’m not one for small talk and there wasn’t much room for it in the conversations had around this body of work. It was revelatory to observe my co–collaborators as things about themselves were revealed to themselves by themselves. Looking at yourself as a painting and writing about yourself in the third person produced a few aha moments for all of us. And working with people - some of whom were not visual artists- to create a mark to physically sum up a shift in mindset made me reevaluate mark making in my own work.

My coresidents wrote the first things that came into their minds when given the four Brechtian prompts discussed in the previous entry. Writing about an image of themselves- not a photo but the more extracted likeness that is a painting- and writing in the third person was an exercise in accessing a degree of objectivity in thinking about one’s self.

Bertoldt Brecht’s epic theatre works to remind you that you are watching something staged, something artificial. In the early 20th century this differed wildly from the naturalistic theatre on offer, a theatre that was meant to emotionally connect you to the characters and the story and suspend your disbelief for the magical duration of the performance. Instead of casting a spell, Brecht worked to make the audience think critically about what was being put forth on the stage.

I am happily betwixt residencies. 

In late October of 2022, I had a great two week residency at Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Scotland. Next week, I travel to Monson, Maine for a one month residency at Monson Arts.

I'm thinking I need a place on this website to stash some half finished thoughts and works in progress.

So I am adding this blog, a place where I can write about my work from time to time- to both objectively examine my own processes and a place to gather feedback, input and ideas.