Back from the Vermont Studio Center...

::double rainbow over the main building on open studio night::

Saturday evening I returned from a two week artist residency at The Vermont Studio Center.  The experience was absolutely phenomenal.  It was my 1st time attending a residency and my 1st time away (on my own) in many, many years.  Today I'm going to talk a little bit about the experience and over the next week or two I will share the work I created while at VSC.  The Vermont Studio Center hosts 50 visual artists and writers every month year round.  It is a huge and well run program that offers a private room, private studio space and three hot meals each day.  Most people stay for 4 weeks but you can choose to only stay two (like me and 10 other peeps).  During my stay there were 17 poets and fiction writers and 37 visual and performance artists from all over the US and the world.  My days started with breakfast with breakfast from 7:30-8:00, followed by 4 hours of solid painting time.  Lunch was available 12:00-12:30 and then I worked for 4 more hours before breaking for yoga on M-W-F and catching up on email or going for a hike the other days(sooo much natural beauty...covered bridges, waterfalls and the gorgeous green mountains).  Dinner was served 6:00-6:30 and was followed by more studio time. Most nights there were presentations scheduled from 8:00-9:30 that were optional. There were two visual artists and a poet who did slide presentations during my two weeks, two of the nights fellow artists presented their work and spoke briefly and one of the nights was set aside for readings by the poets and fiction writers and there was an open studio night.  The experience of having solid solitary work time interspersed with absolutely delicious meals in the company of amazing and interesting artists and writers three times each day was one that I will carry with me for a long time. I worked on an encaustic series I had planned before I left, experimented with cold wax on paper and on boards, messed around with mono printing on paper and worked with some natural materials gathered by the river just outside my studio window.  Over the next week or two I will share a bit about the things I created and the processes I experimented with and what I learned about myself and my work while I was away.  If you have ever considered applying for a residency program, I have to say,  you should absolutely go for it.