Artist Residencies... a Game Changer (12.15.18)

What a year. After a slow business of art season, things are turning around!

This year, I was awarded two fantastic residencies.

First, next month I’m the 2019 Atrium Health Artist-in-Residence at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Charlotte, NC. So incredible for many reasons. (More about this later. See my studio at McColl Center at end of this post.)

Mark your calendar for the MCAI Open House/Opening Reception on Thursday, January 24 from 6–9 pm. In addition to celebrating the opening of the exhibition, the public is invited to meet the Artists-in-Residence in their studios. (I’ll be there.)

That is where my first water glass — inspired by The Hambidge Center residency can be seen. Water in nature and now, lots of greens throughout my water works.

Completely changing to glass in late 2011 has been a long, expensive, and time consuming process. As incredibly rewarding as it’s been, I have been in need of a recharge. Time with water in nature. Space to exhale.

I got it earlier this year:) My late August residency at The Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences changed the direction of art I’m creating about water.

What an INCREDIBLE place The Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences really is! The timing could not have been better. A prayer answered.

I got to paint… to play… to explore & experiment with water, color, and paper.

One of finished paintings/collages with acrylic & paper. (Like my glass rounds, everything is hand made/cut & is therefore imperfect. (Photo skews the collaged circles more than in real life:)

Detail on another finished painting/collage with acrylic & paper… and a little vinyl too.

This sweet space (at McColl Center for Art + Innovation) is going to be my studio for four months starting in January 2019. When I was an AiR at McColl Center in 2010, it was first time I’d really experimented with abstract water-inspired paintings. That body of art ended up being my early glass work… as I started learning about kiln glass during second half of 2011.

Now, I’m finally at a place where I can create both paintings and my glass. My residency starting next month will be made up of lots of painting — exploring water through abstract painting. Follow the journey more closely on INSTAGRAM:)