It’s been an extremely long week and a half filled with days that end too quickly. I’ve been working diligently yet I feel I have little to show for it. I’ve finally consolidated and edited four + years of student work. I’ve also been battling code (with the help of Forrest, Avi and some dude from Australia that posts on my hosting forum) and the skeleton of my gallery pages are working. If you want to take a peak, check out the student work page. Hopefully sometime soon, I’ll have everything uploaded and properly running. I’ve also been applying for a few positions, which I didn’t really intend on doing.
The Vermont Studio Center is situated like a little village within a small town. There are several housing structures (old houses turned into dorm-like boarding rooms) and studio buildings with a few shared structures grounding the residency. There is a library/lounge/ meeting space located in the basement of the dining hall. A small river runs alongside the building which is itself an old converted mill, hence the name Red Mill Hall. The studio spaces are fairly large, and several buildings house 40 + studios. I am located in the Barbara White Studios – the farthest building from the main campus cluster. The town of Johnson, Vermont is very small and holds little distraction. I’m going a bit stir crazy at the moment but there is a planned visit to the home of Bread & Puppet Theater on Friday.
Vermont Studio Center is one of the largest residencies for artists in the United States. Each 4 week session throughout the year houses 40 – 50 artists working in an array of mediums. Clearly, one of the big draws of this particular program is the amount of social interaction between artists from varied locations, their breath of experience and diversity in practice. However it’s just as easy to lock yourself away from everyone and concentrate on yourself and your work.
I have a lot of thoughts and musings concerning my experience thus far but I’ll save those for a late night ramble.
Photos below are of the Red Mill, my studio upon arrival, Thanksgiving dinner, new friends and the only piece of work I’ve made that I remotely like so far (guoache on paper, 22″ x 30″):
