Amy Katz

Grateful am I to be here, over a month in to this four month residency which began in early January. Once I entered into this valley, I felt a quite lyrical energy. Listening to ‘Dulcimer Moon’ by Heidi Muller may have enhanced this fairy tale-esque, mythical mood as I stopped for a moment by three sturdy deer at the base of McClure pass, before finding myself prayerfully and methodically changing gears to get my one tiny bar of gas over the mountain. (While for other travelers I advise keeping a closer to full tank,) it worked, thank G!d,  and hours later was walking in to the 'gingerbread house' casita, my new home for a while, where, again, three great big deer ran and played out front and in back of the house.

Here’s a picture of this little house from the art studio I am working in.

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After a few days here, the four artists, along with a good turn out of maybe 20 folks from the community gathered for a ‘meet and greet’. We showed slides of past work and shared plans for what we’d be up to. It was a great event. I felt really understood and loved up by the crowd who asked great questions and seemed to truly care about arts for a fulfilled soul.  It was really beautiful.

We hosted an end of month show in January where again, I appreciated the quality of attention of those who came; watching folks take the time to sit with the work, stemming conversations from what was present and alive. Super great. I heard yesterday there had been up around 50 folks cycling in throughout the night.

I presented a group of found nature material/crafted collages embedded with these ceramic characters I was making that were certainly inspired by Caroline Douglas’ awesome work I got to connect with several times in Boulder.

 

I also had up a series of 18 small paintings that I had begun to sketch out during my yoga training. They were all some variation of a Sanskrit symbol called the 'muladhara yantra' that’s associated with the ‘root’ center. I liked having 18 as it's a sacred number in both Hindu and Hebrew languages. Here are photos of some of those:

It has been largely nourishing to chop wood and sleep by wood heat in this little house. Chelsea has reminded me a few times that being warmed by the heat of a wood stove is like getting a hug. I do feel a giant embrace in my life right now in getting to live and work in this fertile place. I have also said several times that this experience has been a perfect way to get someone who thinks they don't like winter to fall madly in love with it.

Inside house. Gotta love crooked windows..

found a phoenix in the fire..

Right now I'm working on oil paintings and ceramics, gleaning images from Jewish learnings, the feminine heart, a personal mythology, and of course the deer. Starting at the last new moon, about a week ago began the joyous month of Adar in the Jewish calendar, which this year lasts two months in this 'pregnant' or leap year in the cycle. Looking forward to infusing joy into the this work over the coming months.

With warmth, joy and roots,

Amy


Betsy Foster

Living and working at Elsewhere for the months of October and November was one of the best things I’ve ever done. Beginning my trek from Rochester, NY to Paonia, I did a little road trip across the country: making stops at the Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore, and Yellowstone National Park- then south to Colorado. This experience of driving across the country, seeing mountains for the first time, and then living in the valley really inspired the work I made during my residency.

For the month of October I dedicated my studio time to tackling the teapot form. Having the time to just make work and not having to worry about anything else is something so invaluable and I’m very thankful for the opportunity. November was spent making work to round out my body of work for my graduate school applications.

I’ve included in progress shots from the studio and finished photos of my favorite pieces made during my stay at Elsewhere:

I’m so thankful to have had the chance to live and work at Elsewhere and for the artists and friends I’ve met. Paonia really is an amazing little town and it will always be a special place for me.

Betsy Foster

betsyfosterceramics.com

Trent Davis Bailey

For the past six months — from June through November — I have been continuing to work on my long-term project, “The North Fork,” which I began nearly four years ago.

With my interest in the North Fork Valley community and food, and my rekindled connection with my family here, it seems fitting to be posting on Thanksgiving Day about my experience as an artist-in-residence at Elsewhere Studios.

Elsewhere has been a place of support to live and work alongside an international group of artists, writers, poets, and performers. What I have found particularly unique about Elsewhere is its imaginative disposition and ad-hoc spirit. For one, there is the pistachio-green house adorned with Gaudí-esque window frames and hodge-podge woodwork throughout the interior. And then there is the Gingerbread House, a backyard sauna-turned-artist studio with a curved roof and slanted windows, which is where I stayed for the second half of my residency. I view Elsewhere as the result of Paonian artists combining their creative visions to create a place that bolsters the imagination. It has been a pleasure for me to live amid and be inspired by the world they’ve created.

My extended stay at Elsewhere has also given me the opportunity to participate in farming and food production. It has allowed me to engage with the North Fork community and land in a sustainable manner that supports the local way of life. Before arriving at Elsewhere I arranged a work-trade with two farms where I have worked as a farmhand and received food in return. I have also worked at the local food co-op, The Old River Road Trading Post, where I have helped prepare macrobiotic community lunches each week.

My aunt Chrys happens to be one of the chefs in the kitchen at the Trading Post, and her food has always fascinated me. I can think back to a moment when I was seven years old and I looked at the colorful servings of food that she placed on the table, most of which were vegetables grown in her garden. There were so many strangely beautiful foods that I had never seen before—purple potatoes, snow peas, yellow and green heirloom tomatoes, and multicolored kimchi in a glass jar. The only things that I recognized were store-bought rice, corn, and tortillas, which seemed only distantly related to the homegrown food on the table. Memories such as this one — of food and family — continue to influence my work in this valley.

As I leave Elsewhere this week, I am already planning to return to the North Fork this Winter and next Spring to continue my project. During that time I will also be processing all of the color negative film I shot during the residency. (Elsewhere doesn’t yet have the digital equipment and facilities for me to do this.) As my form of thanks to Elsewhere, I am sharing here a selection of my recent iPhone photos from the residency and the valley, which I have posted on my Instagram account, @trentdavisbailey, over the past six months.

Thank you, Elsewhere, and thank you to the 20 remarkable residents I have shared this experience with.

—Trent Davis Bailey

to there then here then back to here again. - By Toby Liebowitz

I came to Elsewhere  to work on the drawings of a short comic I wrote. The comic is about a group of young boys who find a man living in the greenbelt of thick woods that is behind their suburban houses. The boys discover an complex detailed home of an outsider artist and marvel at their terrifying discovery. I find the age of adolescence so compelling because one feels like they know everything in the whole world and yet everything is new and totally scary.

I also got to work on some fun experiments in drawing dealing with a sudden huge development in my life.

Back home now – Looking forward to continuing the projects that began at Elsewhere :)

Its so welcoming and warm at Elsewhere I miss you other residents (Sarah, Trent, Laurie) already! Such good folks.

Laurie Longtin

Going to Elsewhere I had in mind to make functional pieces (plates, bowls, cups etc.) with paintings of landscapes on them. I had never been to a mountainous region and it certainly did not disappoint! I planned to make many pieces, and pick the best eight to inlay, paint, and use underglaze newsprint transfers on. I always overextend myself, so completing what I had planned is an amazing feeling! Some of the pieces are larger and have more detail and painting, and some less.

I found wonderful companionship in Tomato the resident kitty.

I helped host a mug making fundraiser for Elsewhere through Backcountry Bistro. Community members made mugs and when they sell a percentage will go to them, Elsewhere, and Backcountry Bistro.

One beautiful afternoon all the residents went to the reservoir for a swim.

I made a set test tiles of all possible glaze combinations for the studio to keep.

Two of the residents and I entered the grape stomping competition during the Mountain Harvest Festival.

Sarah and I went on a little hike around Mount Jumbo before the super moon eclipse.

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This residency is the first time I have ever traveled by myself, and also the first time I focused solely on my art. After just one month at Elsewhere I have been told my ceramics show a noticeable improvement. I have also gained confidence in myself and my decisions. Returning to Boston I continue to feel the peace I found in Paonia. I will always treasure the lovely times I shared with Trent, Sarah, and Toby. I cannot thank Karen Good enough for this opportunity and all of her help, and also the community of Paonia for welcoming us so warmly and participating in my “choose your own adventure” at Elsewhere.

September in the Land of Elsewhere By Sarah Freeman

 

 


It’s been an interesting month here at Elsewhere.  I’ve had moments of inspiration and moments of frustration, and I’ve learned where I am with my work and what I need to do next. And I’ve managed to meet some really amazing people along the way. Looking back, I wish I’d arrived with fewer expectations of myself, and more of an intention to be open to exploration, but perhaps this experience is what I needed to wake me up from the assumptions I’ve been operating under. Namely, I realized that I’ve been very focused on creating a refined end product, whereas I should be focusing on what I would like to say with my work, and why, and to let it flow from a place of deep calm, insight, and joy. Such realizations are all part of the process, and I’m glad that my month at Elsewhere allowed me to realize I’m right where I need to be.

Initially, I thought I’d make at least two or three very polished large paintings, in one month, but this isn’t what happened! I brought, and intended to finish, a large painting that I’d been working on for the last few months at home. This piece was based on a drawing from a photograph, and depicts a person standing in the the dappled light caused by the shadow of a tree. The dappled light creates an abstract pattern on the wall behind the figure, as well as across the person’s face, obscuring it. The feeling is that of an open, friendly confrontation, with a person whose face and gender is mysterious. The painting itself depends mostly on a smooth gradation from dark to light. You can always make a gradation smoother, so I spent a lot of time obsessively smoothing it out, more than made sense to. I included a couple detail shots so that you can see the way I work in oils. The texture of the linen is important to me, so the way I work is basically drybrush, in a process similar to drawing, or a highly refined underpainting. I often end up working with a tiny brush to make the areas that are slightly too light a little darker, and then lift out the areas that are too dark with a tiny bit of paper towel, until a smooth tone is achieved. I drove myself almost crazy on these little things, and it wasn’t until the month was almost over that I realized I’d been wrapped up in details, and I wasn’t close to finishing anything!

I resolved to finish the painting quickly, without the fussiness from before. And I ended up finishing in the last few days before the show, more satisfactorily than I thought I’d be able to do in such a short time. (I’ll probably still touch it up a bit once I get home, though not to the obsessive degree as before.) The experience made me realize I’ve reached a point with my work that is part of a familiar pattern for me from past years: I start out a project or technique loosely, then over the course of several months, I get tighter and tighter until the work becomes stiff and so slow to finish that I’m not even enjoying it anymore. And then I have to begin again, loosely and freely to start anew. I imagine many artists go through something similar. It’s been a valuable experience for me, and I know that once I get home, I will immerse myself in sketches and experiments, without concern about a perfect outcome. As my father said to me earlier today over Skype, “Perfection is the enemy of the good.” I’m not sure whether this statement is translated from Latin by some great past thinker, or is something that he just made up (you never know with my dad), but either way, it will be my mantra for the coming weeks.

I also began a new painting that I’d been planning on starting for a while. It’s a portrait of a contemplative young woman, based on a drawing made from life at my figure drawing group back home in Santa Fe. The portrait is within an oval, against a background of infinite ocean. The world outside one’s mind is infinite, and the world inside is infinite too. I wanted to convey the vastness of the nature and imply a comparison to the vastness of the mind, within a classical or timeless framework.  I didn’t finish this piece, so I’ll be finishing it up at home.

A serendipitous moment occurred here at the local bar.  I’d thought of making a companion piece to the aforementioned, of a young man’s portrait within an oval and mountains in the background instead of ocean. I had a specific face in mind for this young man — I wanted to paint someone with classical features, and was disappointed to think that I didn’t know anyone with the appropriate face to model. Then one evening, the other residents and I went out to a local bar (“The Rev”), and as we were sitting and drinking our beers, a young man walked in the door with just the face I’d been imagining earlier! After I worked up the courage to approach him, I tapped him on the shoulder and said, “I know this is weird, but I’m an artist and I’d love to use you as a model.” He was flattered and only too happy to help me out. I photographed him at the Elsewhere studio that weekend, and I ended up drafting out a basic concept for a future painting.

I feel I’ve grown more in the last month than in the past twelve. I won’t soon forget the people I’ve met here, or this very unique part of the country. The mountains and surrounding landscape have been inspiring territory for hiking and exploring, and I think the photos I’ve taken here will likely serve as a starting point for future artworks. I’ve also appreciated the connection I feel to the earth in this valley, as expressed through the farming and abundant local produce. If you like fresh food, September is the month to come! A local described Paonia to me as “Mayberry meets Woodstock,” and the comparison seems apt. It’s a small, friendly, traditional, isolated town with no traffic lights or chain stores or even cell phone coverage, rooted (as far as I can make out) in farming and coal, yet with a distinctively free thinking population. I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it. Most of all, I feel honored to have met the other residents that were here this month: Toby Liebowitz, Laurie Longtin, and Trent Davis Bailey. I’ve learned so much getting to know each of you, and look forward to following your careers.

SarahFreemanArt.com

Check Out Amy Jorgenson's Experience of Paonia Here


Dreaming Elsewhere - Caitlyn Tella

My whole residency has been one big dream workshop. Time expands in Paonia and anything seems possible.  I came here to explore dreams (the kind you have when you are asleep) through performance. In addition to doing this with so many wonderful participants, I also made a performance that took place inside of an actor’s nightmare.

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sleep tight tomatoes – Mara & Tyler (Mariah & Tony)

This month of June has been a whirlwind of landscape exploration, meeting plenty of new people, artistic experimentation, and learning how to get into the groove of this valley. From the moment we arrived our intentions were to work with the magical locations surrounding us and it was never disappointing. Because our artwork deals with the relationship between humankind and the natural world we inhabit, the beautiful region around Paonia allowed for deep consideration on this topic without the distractions and obstacles that are normally in your face in a more urban environment.

Our time spent at Elsewhere will no doubt remain vivid in our memory as will the amazing support we got from the people of Paonia and beyond. We are really grateful to have met so many who had a huge impact on the outcome of our work.

Of course we can’t forget our fellow residents; we had such a lovely time with our favorite housemates: Lily, Andrea, and Tremaine (Troy [Travis]). – Mara & Tyler (Mariah & Tony)