Taking Time Away pt. 2
reflections on my recent time as an artist in residence
I write this to you from my couch, I am in my sweats watching the Giants play the Diamondbacks and in these moments I am transported to my childhood where I would do my homework on the couch and watch the Giants game with my dad.
I am grieving the quick end to the Warriors post season and it only took me one Giants game win to help me switch gears into this new season (but I am still bummed). Lol. Truly you can find a metaphor for everything within sports. I always resist the changing season, even when I know I enjoy the next phase.
The last few weeks I have been adjusting to the end of my short residency at Chalk Hill two weeks ago- it was so fast but also it felt like time stopped while I was up there. I didn’t have any service or wifi while I was there, so I would work uninterrupted for hours on end. I really resisted the isolation initially- and felt uncomfortable to be honest. After a few days it felt good to be physically removed from my day to day obligations- and also for it to require effort for me to connect to others.
As I come back into having service, wifi and even just the normal demands of being home, I am realizing how much people have access to me- and how much I have access to others (through wifi and my phone). It didn’t take long for me to decide that I need to make adjustments to bring a bit more of that quiet and slowness into my own world at home. Last week, I removed social media from my phone, I only access it on my computer for now. I don’t have plans to make posts on instagram- I have found engagement with posts and even stories to be minimal and I am not interested in banging my head against that wall anymore. I think I will just post when I feel like it- or maybe I wont! I am just viewing it as a portfolio site for now. I don’t want to make content, I want to make art and share or document that art and process and I think the algorithem just isn’t that interested in connecting my work with others who want the same anymore. And that’s ok!! It’s no longer working for me- atleast for now- and I am happy to see that and choose different.
In just a week I have noticed a huge shift in my attention span, what I have capacity for in my work, my relationships with others and even just in my relationship to myself. I am more aware of how I feel emotionally and physically, I have spent more time not listening to anything than I have in a long time- sitting in silence like a psychopath. I am reading more, getting better sleep- it’s been really nice! I have no idea how long I will do this for- but I think just acknowledging that these things don’t feel good anymore for me helped me give myself permission to make a shift- and having the residency as an example of how it could feel!
It helped to have this substack as a practice and platform I have already developed for sharing my work and connecting with others, and I have been enjoying the slowness of this space and how thoughtful everyone is. I am also still checking them out on my computer- so if I get a dm I can see it and respond etc. It just doesn’t feel as urgent or all consuming.
One of the other really sweet things about my time at the residency is we had an open studio for all the artists who have stayed there over the past several months. It just happened to be at the end of my short stay so it felt very connected to the residency experience. There was live music, a few sweet people came to say hi and introduce themselves and let me know they’ve been following my work for sometime, which is probably my favorite part about social media- the real world connections it can lead to. I also had some friends who surprised me by visiting and got to meet so many new people! It was raining, there was live music and snacks, and we all huddled under this large overhang to chat and share our love of art.
After the open studio, I packed up all my paintings into my car and drove 25 minutes south to Sebastopol to visit my friend Julie for a slice of pizza and a catch up. We went to Psychic Pie which is honestly the cutest spot with the best pizza. Julie is one of those people who always has the best perspective on things and she’s hilarious. It was a really nice way to end to my time up in Sonoma County and rounded out some of my biggest take aways. I want more of that. I want more real life conversations, I want more awkward but sweet discussions with strangers. I want to move slower and with more intention in my day to day life and in my connections with others.
This doesn’t mean I don’t want to connect online- I am writing to you online right now! I have a dm chain with a group of gals from different states- we just gossip about real housewives and bravo and I will die before I lose that! You better believe I am linking to things on my laptop and chatting a few times a week on my insta web browser. I just don’t need it on my phone right now and I want to encourage more of the above.
So I guess the thing I didn’t expect from my time at the residency- and perhaps the coolest thing- is how it would make me reflect on my current creative landscape and environment. It was eye opening to sit with the discomfort of not having things like wifi and social media that I took for granted and opening my eyes to how much it is impacting my creativity. It made me ask What do I want MORE of and what shifts can I do today to foster that for myself? I realized I need more emotional and mental space to make the work I want to make, so now I am trying to find ways to foster that for myself. The post residency impact of the residency is a gift all it’s own.
If you have been thinking about applying to residencies- I really recommend. Applying is a practice- getting your statements, cv, portfolio etc all in line can feel like a lot of work- but once you have it all lined up- just apply to a bunch! Worry about if you can go or not if you get accepted. The number of rejections that I field on a month to month basis is truly humbling- but without applying I wouldn’t have landed this one. So you never know!
Upcoming Workshops
I have a few upcoming workshops which I will list below, if they interest you and you have questions, let me know! I would love to talk to you about them.
Yellow Brick Road starts May 15th- this is a 5 week class where I work with you to develop a gameplan for body of work that is uniquely yours. You can learn more about YBR here.
Night Class starts May 16th- this is a 12 week course! After teaching over a hundred Yellow Brick Road students, I found I was being asked for another class but this time focused on fostering a practice. So I created Night Class (a class that isn’t always at night) which you can learn more about here.
Other Links
Check out my work HERE
Sign up for 1:1 sessions with me- I love working with artists and I would love to work with you!
You can find work of mine for sale HERE
You can find recorded workshops by me HERE
follow me on the gram HERE (you know I am currently there less, but I still see messages etc there)
“I want to move slower and with more intention in my day to day life and in my connections with others.” - I felt this in my soul.
Amazing post, Linds. Gave me a lot to think about.
Thanks Candace!!! Miss you friend