Oh, Canada.
The checklist for packing for my most recent residency at Monson Arts was fairly straightforward: brushes, paints, panels, pencils. Check.
But I also included an item that might be considered an anomaly at a creative residency: a table top hockey game.
Not just any table top hockey game: the 1994 deluxe Wayne Gretzky edition. Montréal Canadiens versus Toronto Maple Leafs. Rink shield and referee included.
Under the Influence of Others
While at Monson Arts, I was grateful for the collaboration of four fellow residents. Each listened to my spiel about Berthold Brecht and gesture as expression of state of mind. Each then explored what their default gesture or pose is and sat for a reference photo or two. What I could not foresee was how the fresh connection with each and my awareness of their various practices would affect the way I paint.
With | Hold
So it’s been a full week here and what have I done? Well, I began as I often do at a residency: start with a painting that has been lurking about and exorcize it. Fortunately, the piece that has been gray-matter-squatting ties in well with my desired focus whilst here at Monson: exploring gesture as both a way of learning and expressing a mindset, and employing new gestures to unlearn a thing you want to change.
Monson, ME, population: 619
I’m at a residency in Monson, Maine and will be here for the next month. Monson is located in the Highlands of Maine only about an hour and a half in from the Quebec border. Population, according to the 2020 census, is 609 people, apparently all of them super friendly and born with the ability to learn your name and commit it to memory within five seconds of meeting you.