Our 2014 Resident Artist Season is underway. We have four resident artists that have brought the studio to life in the past few days, and we are looking forward to the fun increasing at an exponential rate.
After a long day for everyone, Mary and I welcomed three weary travelers to Pentwater, and their first dinner at Shared Space Studio. With the Field Trip Field Guide in hand, they toured the building and the town and watched the sunset over Lake Michigan from the end of the pier.
This is our first summer housing the resident artists at the studio, and it feels like an important step towards our future plans. Residents can easily work day and night, and take responsibility for the space as their home.
After a long day for everyone, Mary and I welcomed three weary travelers to Pentwater, and their first dinner at Shared Space Studio. With the Field Trip Field Guide in hand, they toured the building and the town and watched the sunset over Lake Michigan from the end of the pier.
This is our first summer housing the resident artists at the studio, and it feels like an important step towards our future plans. Residents can easily work day and night, and take responsibility for the space as their home.
Amanda Kennedy came to us from Oakland, California, and got right to work the first night, setting up her outdoor pottery studio. With 200 lbs of clay to work with, Amanda has spent each day throwing pots on the wheel in the shade. With two weeks at the studio, she plans to throw as many bowls as she can, fire and glaze fire them, and use them to serve guests at the community dinner party she will co-host at the studio next week. A Pleasant Evening will be a social event showcasing our residents' work, including Amanda's pots, Elijah's songs, and Alex's pies. Each guest will bring home their bowl to keep, and all of the food will be sourced from small local farms. Amanda wants to celebrate the personal interactions that happen between vendors and shoppers at farm markets, and between strangers sharing a meal together. The title of the event is in reference to A Pleasant Afternoon, an annual celebration of the infamous one-page newspaper, Mears Newz, in our neighboring town of Mears. Our past residents have been fascinated and inspired by the author of this paper, local historical hero Swift Lathers, so it seems fitting to honor his influence once again at Shared Space.
Natalie Woodlock, originally Australian, but joining us from New Orleans, is using her residency time to go back to an illustration project that has been hibernating for the last year and a half. She is drawing one drawing for every one or two sentences of a short story written by Elyza Touzeau, titled At World's End. The black and white drawings are thick with imagery, as her interpretation of each sentence expands the written word; abstracting and embellishing the course of the story.
She has settled in to her desk and spent the greater part of each day going over source material and the earlier drawings for the book, and mapping out new images. Natalie also advocates for daily beach trips, nudging the other residents get out of the studio for a quick dip.
She has settled in to her desk and spent the greater part of each day going over source material and the earlier drawings for the book, and mapping out new images. Natalie also advocates for daily beach trips, nudging the other residents get out of the studio for a quick dip.
Elijah Jensen-Lindsey, from Nampa Idaho, has taken on a slew of projects, setting up work zones around the studio, inside and out. We found him Saturday morning, playing a glockenspiel that he wedged between two trees in the meadow. He offers the metallophone zone to anyone wishing to make a prayer or a song, or call out in bell tones to the rest of the meadow. Elijah is writing one song each day, a series of 'Meadowtations' that he will perform for the guests at A Pleasant Evening. He is also writing a poem each day, and a little desk and chair have popped up outside to serve as the poem zone. In the little sew zone Elijah sews photographs to poems he types out by typewriter, and binds the handmade books he is writing in.
Elijah is also spending time in the hoop zone, perfecting his free-throws.
Each day he shoots 100 free-throws from the 3-point line, and tallies hits and misses. Each tally is converted into a percentage score, and he is aiming for the 100% perfect day.
On our trip to the hardware store, Elijah bought some supplies to paint the parking lot with yellow lines, mapping out a regulation-size basketball court (or at least half of one). He also has begun accumulating wood and wooden objects to build a permanent percussion instrument between the two pines for future residents and meadow wanderers.
On our trip to the hardware store, Elijah bought some supplies to paint the parking lot with yellow lines, mapping out a regulation-size basketball court (or at least half of one). He also has begun accumulating wood and wooden objects to build a permanent percussion instrument between the two pines for future residents and meadow wanderers.
Our fourth resident, John Alexander Holland, joined us Sunday afternoon, just in time to help us set up for the weekly slide talk. We are glad to have him here, working at a desk piled high with source materials for drawings and collage. He rounds out our group as he and Natalie work at their desks and he and Elijah collaborate in the meadow. A dedicated DJ and sound-maker, John has already made one mixed CD for our zine library, and we know there are more on the way. A Northern Michigan native, John is ready to go swimming, day or night.
Sunday evening, we had our first slide talk of the summer season featuring a pair of resident artists. Our Pentwater regulars showed up, as well as a few new faces and a full car-load of artist friends from Grand Rapids.
Elijah showed images of his paintings, installation, and photographs from his life. He reminded us of the thin line between life and death, between meaning and meaningless. He told us we are all here on earth with a chance to live a creative life, to make things. He played a meadow song and projected plans for the new hoop court.
Natalie wowed the crowd with her video, combining stop-motion animation and Super 8 film. She shared several collaborative and craft-intensive projects, including her Love Letters Anonymous project, where she has collected found and submitted love letters, in original, copied, and read-out-loud formats. She set up a beautiful merch table with her screen-printed zines and posters, celebrating such cherished subjects as Dolly Parton, Twin Peaks, and gemstones.
Elijah showed images of his paintings, installation, and photographs from his life. He reminded us of the thin line between life and death, between meaning and meaningless. He told us we are all here on earth with a chance to live a creative life, to make things. He played a meadow song and projected plans for the new hoop court.
Natalie wowed the crowd with her video, combining stop-motion animation and Super 8 film. She shared several collaborative and craft-intensive projects, including her Love Letters Anonymous project, where she has collected found and submitted love letters, in original, copied, and read-out-loud formats. She set up a beautiful merch table with her screen-printed zines and posters, celebrating such cherished subjects as Dolly Parton, Twin Peaks, and gemstones.
After the talk, and another slow sunset, our residents got to know our guests from Grand Rapids. As we gathered round the campfire, we felt the more the merrier, out in the dark meadow. Rose Beerhorst, a resident artist from last summer, and Ryan Greaves, Mary's collaborator on the Cabin Time residency, were among the group, and we hope to have many returning guests this year. This is truly a shared space.
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