Artist-in-Residence Review

My month at the downtown Artist-in-Residence space was interesting.  When I decided I would be in the space, I really thought I would be working on prints or something besides fabric.  I knew I didn't want to take a sewing machine and other sewing accoutrements to the space.  And I certainly wasn't going to haul all my fabric down there just for a month.

I guess if I was going to be there for a longer amount of time, I would have reconsidered what I brought.  But I think bringing just a small amount and using the fused appliqué technique to compose the pieces worked just fine.

Here was my work space.

I was fairly productive and ended up making around 12 small pieces.  I brought them home to complete the machine stitching and finishing.

One of the reasons I decided to participate in the AiR space was to see what it was like to have a "studio" in a different place, away from home.  It definitely felt more like going to work.  I had to schedule the times I went so I would be committed to going.  I tried to be there three times a week for a few hours each time.  That's less time than what I do at home, but I was still also spending time working in my home studio.

Being in that space made me be more focused, as I only had the stuff I had brought with me to work with.  I couldn't just take a break and wander to another room, or get distracted by something else that needed to be done.  In one sense, that is good.

In the other,  I know I can really focus in my home studio when I need to.  I think it is good to take a break once in a while, get a snack or sit outside in the sun for a few minutes.  At home, I can also work on stuff after dinner or early in the morning.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both spaces.  At home, even though it is my "work", it seems less so in that name than having to go off to "work".  Here it is just what I do.  It gets less respect that way, with family being around and interrupting you and it's not perceived as much as "work" because you are just doing it at home.  But it works for me, right now.

The other reason I decided to try a separate space was because there are other artists in the space and I wondered what the interaction would be like.  It turned out that we each came at different times and I only overlapped with Lynn Fraley, a sculptor, a couple of times.  One time we each had on our headphones and just worked.

I realized that I cannot work and talk at the same time unless I am just doing some mindless hand sewing like putting on a sleeve or facing.  The other time we did chat, which was nice.  But it wasn't about what we working on in the space or getting feedback.

I'm glad to have this experience.  I learned some things and made a bunch of little pieces (which I don't usually do).  Someday, I plan to do an artist-in-residence where I go to another city/state/country preferably with some nature around by which to be inspired.  That would be a completely different experience.

Do you have a studio at home or away?  What are your thoughts on either?

Artist-in-Residence

I officially move out of the BOSCO Artist-in-Residence space on Friday.  Tomorrow is First Thursday and I will be in the space in the evening from 5-8 p.m.  I will have completed works that I created in the space and a few that are still works in progress.

I brought in a couple of my bigger pieces that were already finished and a small framed piece so that people could get an idea of what I "normally" do.  Since I didn't bring my sewing machine to the space, I composed small works with fused fabrics and brought them home to finish the sewing.  Normally, I am piecing the fabric with a machine.

In this picture you can see some of the small pieces I was working on.

I have most of these finished now.  The four on the left I mounted on canvas stretcher bars to see how I liked finishing them that way.

The dark edge is fabric that is sewn to the piece, then wrapped around the bars.  I then hand stitched the corners to make a nice finish.  I'm not sure how I feel about it this way.  I think it looks nice and gives it a little more depth.  What do you think?

In my next post, I will write about my thoughts on my experience in the space.

Artist-in-Residence

This month provides my first experience as an artist-in-residence.  As part of the program run by the Boise City Department of Arts & History,  the Boise Open Studio Collective Organization (BOSCO) was given a space for member artists to work in.  This month there are three of us.

Here are some pictures of the space on First Thursday.  In this first picture, you can see Lisa Cheney's set up on the left and Bonnie Peacher's set up on the right.  Lisa works in mixed media and creates beautiful visual journals.  Bonnie obviously does painting.

Above is a close-up of Lisa's space.  I think I could spend a lot of my time looking at all her ephemera and visual journals.

Continuing around the room to the right of Bonnie's space is the space where I will be set up.  For First Thursday, Geoffrey Everts was still set up there.  But he let me use his table to put some of my stuff on.   Geoffrey is an illustrator and you can see some of his work hanging on the racks and the wall.

Another view looking out from Bonnie's space.

Geoffrey took down his stuff on Friday and I hauled my stuff in this weekend.  I will be set up very much like Geoffrey.  I have a card table just like this one, a chair and a floor light.  That is all the furniture I will bring.

I am not planning on doing any sewing here.  I have decided to work on some small pieces using fused fabrics.  I have a bucket full of colors I selected and pre-fused.  In the space, I will be cutting and composing the pieces.  I have a small iron to fuse them together.  I will bring them home to do any machine sewing.  Hand sewing can be done in the AiR space.

That's the plan.  If that doesn't work out, then I will probably work on carving some linocuts.

I will take some more pictures, once I get my little space set up.

I'm not sure if I will overlap times with the other artists and be in the space at the same time as I think we all have random schedules.  It will be interesting, if we do overlap, to see if I can get anything done.  I always enjoy watching other artists work and asking questions about their techniques and what they are working on.