Chloe Mandy: In Residence at the Project Space
November 4 – December 15 2013 Part 2
It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, the project space, like my metal state fast became cluttered with objects, trees, a huge shell, corn plants, my tooth brush, I tried to follow my instinct, and not to self censure when images emerged that were too whimsical, or crass, or too obvious. But patterns are hard to break, the known is always the starting point, The first two weeks were full of naive optimism, painting wildly, the third week, all default avoidance techniques set in, scattering my attention, I started to draw, not paint, and eventually things started to shift, by placing figures in the constructed landscape I was able to quickly change their scale, and form, the landscapes themselves came into focus, it became clear, that drawing is an essential part of the process for me, also having four or five paintings on the go dipping in, and out, reading poetry, even sleeping at the Project Space, allowing time to contract and expand by eliminating any of the usual constraints on time, all these are essential to the process. I am so glad I was able to do this, even though it seems the territory gained is measureable in millimetres rather than miles. It has been an immeasurably wonderful experience.
Chloe Mandy
