Winding roads, pastel suburbia, idyllic pastures, creepy forest (initially), doors to nowhere, migrant stonewalls, moss carpentry, and trees. Trees of all shapes imaginable, tree as follicles of mother earth with veins that extend to father sky. Connecticut is a treecyclopedia.
Following the end of my art exhibition at Leon Gallery in Denver this year, I went on to complete I-Park Foundations 2018 International Artist-In-Residence Program in East Haddam, Connecticut. I joined five other cross-disciplinary artists as part of Session 1 which took place from 4/25 – 5/21.
My group consisted of (left to right) Mitch McCabe (East Coast/Moving Image), Alexandre Bergeron (Quebec/Music Composition), Eric Sasson (New York/Creative Writing), Alisa Yang (California/Moving Image), Shelley Wong (California/Creative Writing), and myself.
The I-Park residency program was founding in 2001 and set within a 450-acre nature preserve, with open fields, miles of walking trails and stone walls, ponds, a diverse natural habit including teeming wetlands areas, a second generation forest and a pristine river. Residencies are offered from May to December. The typical residency lasts four weeks and includes six artists, all of whom arrive and depart at the same time, ensuring a deeply shared experience. Residents are given a private bedroom in a renovated 1840s farmhouse, a private studio, and chef-prepared dinners four nights a week. Each residency concludes with an Open Studios event, in which members of the public are invited to meet the artists, experience their work and explore the I-Park grounds.
In coming to I-Park, I was not familiar with Connecticut’s topography and had no idea about the vast scope or beauty of the actual I-Park forest reserve. I balanced my studio practice with nature breaks. I made time to hike and explore different crevices of the land every day, discovering new site specific/land art each time. Sometimes I went off land to hike in the wilderness of “Devil’s Hopyard” State Park. Nature was live cinema during this period, I got to witness the metamorphose of the seasons from barren trees into lush green forest tapestry.
I was assigned to the South Studio which had large doors and amazing natural lighting + ventilation. My studio was the only studio that was part of the admin building so the common area and library was very accessible to me. Every studio on land had its unique charm and feature.
Overall, I enjoyed myself at I-Park. I had a pretty labor intensive but emulsifying, renewing, introspective, lesson filled experience. I was able to continue my “Wrong When, Myths from Sky” art series, having completed the preliminary line drawing for five new pieces. Stay up to date on the progress of my new artworks here.
I-Park provides an environment for self direction and residents are at liberty to curate the spectrum of how dynamic, intimate, social or independent they would like their residency experience to be. Depending on your media and creative process, one can really drift off into a space of solitude but no matter how consumed you find yourself in studio practice, the dinner bell will save you five days of the week. Thank you chef Bill for your delicious cooking during our session, we were pampered.
One of the strongest assets of I-Park was the admin/staff support. The staff went out of their way to provide the group and each artist with a fulfilling, productive and comfortable residency experience. I especially want to highlight Ralph (I-Park founder) and Joanne (former Executive Director) who tended to our every need. They were such a joy to get to know, thank you guys for making my residency a fulfilling experience.
On the weekends, our group would take turns and volunteer to cook. I volunteered the first weekend and made an ambitious five course meal featuring my Mongolian jerk chicken food invention. Food was never a thing of worry at I-Park, the kitchen and pantry were always stocked.
Throughout the residency, we had a selection of suggested social happenings like doing a birdwalk, city field trip, volunteer day, private studio crawl, boating on the lake, bonfires, movie nights, etc. that we could partake in. Towards the latter half of the residency, we had a few days without power or wifi because of a storm which made for an even more memorable experience for all of us as eating around the candlelight.
Open Studio day was a perfect ending to a culmination of events. We had about three hours of studio visits followed by a small program. Many patrons, volunteers and the local community came out to support us and celebrate our work. The night ended with sparkling wine and bonfire around the lake surrounded by the company of new lifelong friends.
Follow my residency diary through the picture gram below.
Power to the Toil Collective! diminish all skunk funk.
hilitehead 
elaborate?