Vermont is working as an explorative and contemplative space for my work. I am considering both drawing and performance practice and sharing this process, and the experience of a residency through the blog.
Reflections….
The residency has finished, and I have been reflecting a little, and plugging back into my world alot. It has been an extraordinary experience, timely, constructive, creative, sociable (professionally, personally) …I couldn't have anticipated the rewards I have from the time at Vermont Studio Centre….I couldnt have predicted…I feel enriched, I have a body of work to develop and lots of ideas, I have new friends and peers all over the world and a number of opportunities have already been presented. In short my world has opened up……
Goodbyes…..
I dont like Goodbyes…..I do like Goodbyes….its good to not like Goodbyes as it means there's something sad about leaving and if there's something sad about leaving its because something good happened…..and its good to like Goodbyes because it can mean you have an understanding of all that sadness, and happiness, and can say this was good, and there's good ahead and Goodbye.
From The Golden Treasury of Natural History by Bertha Harris
This work is exploring performance, narrative, mimicry, the power of thought….sort of. Recently I have done a number of acting courses and this has fed into my work and thinking. The processes and methods I have learnt and worked with are complimentary to existing working methods and they had directly opened up potentials for new visual work…
I took a book which was found on a stair. Dusty cover of a golden treasury, I began to emulate the drawings of natural history. I began with the dinosaurs…..
Appropriation of illustration….performance and all its potentials….what is the information in the visual image? How are we to read and understand it….would anyone know I were a Diplodocus if I had not been titled?…..
Return to Performance.
Days seem to have slipped by. I have looked in one journal I was keeping and saw that the last entry was ten days ago. TEN DAYS AGO. This alarm led me to shaking myself up a bit and returning to early mornings and putting in long days in the studio and then the evening. There are so many beautiful places to visit here and walks to waterfalls like ‘Journeys End’ and ‘The Soul Hole’ are revive and inspiration in themselves – but at some point the notion of holiday has to go and work needs to be given dedicated time and absolute priority.Two nights ago I gave a residents presentation. Residents can put their names down to present their work and show it to all the other residents. I thought briefly about not doing it at all, about silently just ‘hmm-ing’ when people asked if I was going to present and I was wondering why I had managed to work myself up into such a fever about it. This was the sort of thing I would court at home, welcome as a chance to celebrate and share work and gain experience in talking about your work. I had seen breathtaking work the previous weeks, a painter (Neil Berger) who’s work is breathing life and and hums with energy, I have seen a sculptor (Sebastian Vincent Martorana) who can make an life size ice cream scoop (sat atop a real wafer cone) out of marble, and different varieties of Haagen Daaz ice cream scooped out of the pot (actual) – greentea is limestone, strawberry is pink talk, sorbet is alabaster, coffee is limestone. There was also Carolyn Masons hilarious photography of fake Christmas couples and so, so much more – everything I have seen represents incredible skill, or craftsmanship, or humour, or humanity, or poetry, or passion…I suppose how could it not? But my point is my awe of everyone else work meant I felt pretty nervous, a classic, ‘I’m not sure why I am here’…..’I don’t belong here’….But the point is I am here and therefore I do belong here so I spent the best part of a morning sorting through slides and putting together what I hoped would be a fair representation of work I have done, recently and over the past few years. It was fine, I didn’t die, and one of the residents was bowled over that I had done work on Engles, she was beside herself, she had dedicated a research paper she had written to him…..so I’m going to pass on one of my photographs taken in Chethams Library, or one of where he once lived to her. I got a laugh too, so terror over and with the memory of a laugh I went to the bonfire that night and soaked and celebrated in red in wine.
Neil Bergerwww.neilberger.com
Sebastian V Martoranawww.sebastianworks.com
Carolyn Masonwww.carolynmason.com
18th August 2008
It’s some happy accident (or sweetly orchestrated) that when my work grids to an inevitable halt , stuck in the mud, there's have writing to turn to. The drawing has been full pelt until now, the photographs too – photographs for recording, not art pieces in themselves, the drawings are masking taped to the wall waiting for the next step, the photographs are continuing, easier now, but I am more in need of research books, art references and visual stimulus to keep the motion going. Writing is a welcome alternative activity.
The sun is up and strong this morning and I was at the studio for 8am, its 5 minutes walk from the dining hall through Johnson town. Past the wooded houses, shops and halls painted yellows, blues, whites and reds. It’s a picture postcard and friendly town with shop signposts for ‘maple leaf syrup’, ‘woolens’, and restaurants ‘Plum and Main’ and ‘Lovin Cup’…after only a couple of days I was saying hello to the locals and chatting with the lady at Marvins, my chocolate stop shop.
There are beautiful things to do here outside of the studio and as my friend knowingly said whilst we were swimming in the lake, eagerly willing a moose to come out of the woods. ‘THIS is what it’s about (i.e. not just being in the studio)’. There’re waterfalls and rivers with many swimming holes, numerous lakes and reservoirs to swim in and a vast number of walks to go on. It’s the perfect revive to white walls and the self involvement that comes with studio practice. I look forward to the next walk, swim, or yoga session with a childlike glee.
Yesterday a few of us from the Centre went to see the Bread and Puppet theatre. A world renowned puppet theatre company, they have now, intentionally, scaled down from huge popularity in the 70’s when people would come as to a festival, the last count of attendees when they were at these heights was 20, 000. The founder Peter Schumann has taken the theatre back its roots and now they perform every Sunday throughout the Summer, still drawing people in their hundreds to a small town in Vermont. The display is made moving by huge papermache masks which create instinctual responses in the audience (like theatre masks present the exact emotion unfettered by additional character attributes) and satirical, wry dialogue and absurd scenes creates a lightness of touch coupled with sharp observations on American politics. Tigers suggested to be Gitmo (Gutanamo) prisoners are made to jump ropes, springboard onto tightropes to pedal across on bike and then land in a tea cup, ‘Mr Its All Fine’ and ‘Mr Do As I Say’ are opposing candidates for office and in true Vermont style, at one point there is a placard written with ‘Make Cheese Not War’ held aloft.
Bec Garland is an artist working in drawing, photography, writing and performance. Â In 2007 she graduated from an MA in Visual Culture at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her background is in education and the arts and she has extensive workshop and teaching experience. Â In 2008 she attended an artists residency at VSC the largest artists and writers residency programme in the states. Â She is interested in finding the creative space where the artist is in the work and representing this.
