We started another great week with our two new residents, Emily and Amy. Amy Johnquest, our final resident to arrive, joined us for dinner on Monday and the following day set herself up to paint. Amy's paintings are often portraits or tributes to everyday people, places, and things, depicted as oddities or novelties in the style of a carnival banner. For her recent banners, she paints on found tablecloths and tapestries and incorporates the pre-existing embroidered motifs into the painting. She set up a painting studio for herself with a tack board of homasote, and began sketches for two banners: A tribute to her late dog Olivia, and a portrait of The Great Log of Pentwater, a local mystery that Amy has appreciated while visiting Pentwater over the last twenty years.
Amy's workspace with beginnings of banners.
Emily + Eliza's hand dance.
Emily Harris used her week in residence to read, write, and experiment with new ideas. She began a new project in which she measured and photographs the other resident's hands. After seeing Emily's artist talk on Sunday, local Pentwater musician Frank Galante offered to collaborative in a movement/music jam. Frank set up his guitars and pedals at the studio to play while Emily made drawings and movements in response. She set up a video camera pointing out of the sliding glass door towards the meadow, and filmed us hand-dancing to the sounds. She played with space, perspective, and illusion as she moved closer or further from the door, entered the frame from all sides, and made contact with the glass.
Emily's hand dance video - hands move in and out of the frame, her hand shrinks in perspective as she moves away from the building.
Paul painting birds.
Paul and Mary proved to be a power-team in the studio this week, with many late nights and early mornings. Paul learned how to use a sewing machine as he and Mary made patchworks from tents, and divided them into pairs of kites that will fly with lights at night to make sky drawings. The two had independently wanted to make a kite at some point in the past, and this was the opportunity for them to collaborate and make their kite dreams come true. For the first pair of kites, they made patchworks from old tents, cut them up, mixed them up, and assembled two diamond-shaped kites, each as tall as they are (a height difference of 14 inches). They then made one square patchwork together, and cut it in half to make two triangular kites. This process was also a way for the two to communicate by working together, as they had until now only had contact through mail correspondence. Outfitted with scalloped fringe and yarn tassels, when the kites were finally airborne in the meadow, it was a triumphant moment for us all.
Mary's kite, airborne in the meadow.
As Mary finishes patch-worked wind socks to bring to her next Cabin Time residency on Rabbit Island, Paul continues to catalog the birds in the meadow with drawings and paintings. His guide to the meadow birds will be accompanied in our library with Mary's Adventure Guide to outings in the Pentwater area; filling in future residents on all of the local places to go and see. The two made yet another trip to the former home of Swift Lathers, at the Oceana Historical Park, so Paul may have the chance to record himself reading The Yearning Years, Swift's book of poetry that stays in the museum's archives. Paul plans to put together his readings of Swift's writings on an audio CD, and gift it to the Pentwater Library.
The team at 8am.
Pentwater's annual Homecoming celebration was this weekend, and the four resident artists really bonded as a team when we entered the esteemed sand sculpture contest. In a brainstorming session we agreed the key to building with sand was to keep it wet, and we were dubbed Team Keep It Wet. After I crafted team spirit shirts, we were on the beach early, with shovel and spray bottles, to carve out and build up our take on the contest's theme "Year-Round Fun in Pentwater." Our design was a quilt draped over a trio of friends in a bed: Each square on the quilt depicted a fun Pentwater past-time. We had the most fun possible, and won a sweet little trophy to show off at the studio.
We were sad to see Emily go back to New York on Saturday, but continued the Homecoming festivities by enjoying a parade, fireworks, karaoke, and a stellar meteor shower. On Sunday, we welcomed another compelling artist to the space to give a talk with Amy. Laura Milkins is a native of Pentwater, who has traveled extensively and now lives in Tucson Arizona, working as an artist and teacher. She presented video and audio documents of two of her projects that involve walking and asking the people she encounters to talk with her and tell her stories. For her project "Walking Home," Laura walked from her home in Tucson, 2000 miles to her mother's home in Grand Rapids. She was a very interesting visiting artist, speaking on the idea of what can qualify as artwork, when you are not making objects, images, or performances.
Amy finished the evening by presenting a history of her paintings, from her early days through her transformation into The Banner Queen. She showed classic side-show banners that influenced her, personal works, and humorous and clever commissions. Diana really outdid herself on the reception snacks, and we had a great turnout with an engaged audience. With only a few days left of the residency season, and the last talk in our lecture series this Sunday, we are feeling satiated with all of the experiences of this season, and already hungry for next year!
Amy finished the evening by presenting a history of her paintings, from her early days through her transformation into The Banner Queen. She showed classic side-show banners that influenced her, personal works, and humorous and clever commissions. Diana really outdid herself on the reception snacks, and we had a great turnout with an engaged audience. With only a few days left of the residency season, and the last talk in our lecture series this Sunday, we are feeling satiated with all of the experiences of this season, and already hungry for next year!
Amy presented some of the work that influenced her style.
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