Our second week in action, and so much has happened. Our four residents solidified as a group this week, beginning to collaborate, exploring the town town of Pentwater, learning from each other, and preparing for our showcase event, A Pleasant Evening.
Each day we spent long hours in the studio, quietly working on projects, laughing really really loud, making plans and hashing out ideas, and sharing a meal together at dinner.
On Wednesday, we had our first weekly meeting of Drawing Club, where we all met in the classroom, and drew whatever the heck we wanted for a few hours. We held a contest to draw the new banner for our website, and Mary was the big winner. She is doing amazing work giving our website a makeover.
Each day we spent long hours in the studio, quietly working on projects, laughing really really loud, making plans and hashing out ideas, and sharing a meal together at dinner.
On Wednesday, we had our first weekly meeting of Drawing Club, where we all met in the classroom, and drew whatever the heck we wanted for a few hours. We held a contest to draw the new banner for our website, and Mary was the big winner. She is doing amazing work giving our website a makeover.
Natalie continued to spend long hours at the drawing desk, making good use of the times she broke away from it with trips to the beach and the thrift stores and the Pentwater library. She has been through every book in our studio library, scouring it for interesting photographs to draw in her style of collaged-together imagery; with collected things coming together in one composition that tells us a story that is still kind of a mystery. She also picks up objects from around the studio to draw and add to her sketchbook archive of illustrations.
Her contribution to A Pleasant Evening will be illustrations of each line of one of Eijah's meadow songs. She was inspired by our field trip to the Shelby Gem Factory on Saturday, and has promised to draw a portrait of Larry, the gem scientist, and one of his man-made gemstones.
Natalie also knocked our socks off at the impromptu pizza-eating contest during our field trip to local curiosity, Country Dairy, and their all-you-can-eat/drink pizza and chocolate milk buffet.
Her contribution to A Pleasant Evening will be illustrations of each line of one of Eijah's meadow songs. She was inspired by our field trip to the Shelby Gem Factory on Saturday, and has promised to draw a portrait of Larry, the gem scientist, and one of his man-made gemstones.
Natalie also knocked our socks off at the impromptu pizza-eating contest during our field trip to local curiosity, Country Dairy, and their all-you-can-eat/drink pizza and chocolate milk buffet.
Amanda made several kiln-loads of work this week, finishing a stack of bowls to bisque fire and starting on glaze tests in the evenings while she threw more bowls in her outdoor studio during sunny hours. Early on Saturday Amanda gave our group a lesson in pottery. She taught us how to wedge our clay, center it on the wheel, and control and coax the wet clay into a hollow form. We have two wheels at the studio, that have never been used there, so it was very empowering to have them both set up and everyone giving it a try.
Monday morning, Amanda visited the Pentwater farmer's market for the first time, introducing herself to the local organic farmers and making plans for the dinner she will serve in her bowls at A Pleasant Evening.
Monday morning, Amanda visited the Pentwater farmer's market for the first time, introducing herself to the local organic farmers and making plans for the dinner she will serve in her bowls at A Pleasant Evening.
This week, Elijah maintained his daily practices; keeping a dream journal, writing one song and one poem daily, and shooting 100 free throws in the late afternoons. Tallying his misses and makes has shown that he shoots hoops like the pros. With 55% on his very worst day, several days hovering around 70%, and 79% on his best day, Elijah steps up to the free throw line with a precise routine of bouncing and shooting and counting. For a person with injuries and chronic pain, this is an endourance piece. It is a meditation, repetitive and pointed, a daily challenge in which Elijah learns about himself and how me moves in the world.
With time-based and ephemeral works, Elijah documents his findings in three small journals; he is also leaving his mark on our space in permanent and visible ways. He measured out and painted the lines on our parking lot asphalt, to turn it into a proper half-court. And he began a new project in the meadow with two dying birch trees. He has wrapped and braced them and is making a patchwork flag that will be hung from the brace he rigged up. He has also set up a few more zones around the studio this week- a painting zone on the classroom wall, and a recording zone where he is working out the music for his Meadowtations songs. He records the songs in the meadow, then again in the studio, and will make another more finished recording when he is back home. We are hoping he will leave us with a CD for our zine library and are looking forward to his concert in the meadow.
With time-based and ephemeral works, Elijah documents his findings in three small journals; he is also leaving his mark on our space in permanent and visible ways. He measured out and painted the lines on our parking lot asphalt, to turn it into a proper half-court. And he began a new project in the meadow with two dying birch trees. He has wrapped and braced them and is making a patchwork flag that will be hung from the brace he rigged up. He has also set up a few more zones around the studio this week- a painting zone on the classroom wall, and a recording zone where he is working out the music for his Meadowtations songs. He records the songs in the meadow, then again in the studio, and will make another more finished recording when he is back home. We are hoping he will leave us with a CD for our zine library and are looking forward to his concert in the meadow.
Alexandra Difiglia was our exciting new arrival on Saturday afternoon, joining us from Grand Rapids, MI. After her orientation tour, we spent the rest of the day field-tripping, so she had a chance to play before she got to work. Her plans are to make a pie every other day; research postcard correspondence between Pentwater tourists and their friends and families back home; and make blankets for the resident bunks- just like summer camp.
This is our third summer residency, but it is the first time I have seen fruit on the trees and the brambles in the meadow. It is serendipitous that we have a pie-maker in residence, and mulberries, thimbleberries, raspberries, blackberries, and chokecherries growing out back.
This is our third summer residency, but it is the first time I have seen fruit on the trees and the brambles in the meadow. It is serendipitous that we have a pie-maker in residence, and mulberries, thimbleberries, raspberries, blackberries, and chokecherries growing out back.
At our weekly slide talk on Sunday, Amanda and John presented their work to a receptive crowd. We once again had guests come from Grand Rapids for the talk, three car-fulls this time, and visiting friends helped John bleach his hair for the special occasion. John spent the week working on watercolor paintings, collages, a sculpture sketch with sticks and string, and piecing together playlists to share with the studio. John also spent a lot of time making us giggle.
In his slide talk John shared work from college, and more recent explorations in paint, drawing, collage, video, and sound. He is always representing light and dark, the good and evil that are in everything; and working intuitively, he doesn't feel pressed to over-explain his art. We all got it.
For his community project, John DJ-ed a dance party for everyone after the slide talk. Our friend Mike was in attendance and they had some time to jam on a keyboard. John's freedom to work on whatever comes to him, day and night, is an inspiring force at the studio. Our group of residents have been so studious that they forget to make dinner. They have been flexible and engaged, and have brought out the best in our workspace. With our first group leaving this week, there is so much more to do.
In his slide talk John shared work from college, and more recent explorations in paint, drawing, collage, video, and sound. He is always representing light and dark, the good and evil that are in everything; and working intuitively, he doesn't feel pressed to over-explain his art. We all got it.
For his community project, John DJ-ed a dance party for everyone after the slide talk. Our friend Mike was in attendance and they had some time to jam on a keyboard. John's freedom to work on whatever comes to him, day and night, is an inspiring force at the studio. Our group of residents have been so studious that they forget to make dinner. They have been flexible and engaged, and have brought out the best in our workspace. With our first group leaving this week, there is so much more to do.
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