Open studios in the country

Artists in Residency programs are supposed to stir things up, focus like a laser beam, and create work that makes us think. Today, the last Saturday in June, artist studios in both Chasama North (Pine Plains) and the Wassaic Project were open for inquiring visitors.

Lucha Rodriguez studio

The vibe at Chasamsa North was friendly and generous. Each artist had a live work space that blended with other residents, or not. They were eager to share their stories, and laugh over their results. Lucha Rodriguez, (a Venezuelan living in Atlanta), showed us her technique of carving paper, and shared how the weekly trips to McEnroes' farm stand to work the fields helped bond the group. Susan Morelock from Allentown PA, who says her practice is compelled by both beauty and theory, had mapped out a forensic study of her new home in Pennsylvania that once belonged to a notorious murderer. Corey J. Willis' drawings, done on the floor of a writers studio, presented a litany of moods, yet mostly political satire, with two goofy cartoon characters, one red, one blue, each playing, manipulating, mirroring each other and blowing happy face bubbles. He brought down the politicians in his line drawing and yet the expressions he gave them was of a human frailty that was most lovable. Jodie Mim Goodnough shared her photographic process, and KT Duffy, from Chicago, impressed us with descriptions of her study into a new software, and though it was way over my head, her colorful woven collage of computer images danced across the screen in hypnotic trance inducing undulations.  I had to snap myself out of it and make our way over to the Wassaic Project barn studios, which are literally in barn stalls.
I remember when the barn was a real working animal auction house. It is wonderful to see it transformed by artists. Some really clever artworks can be found, left behind by past artists who played with the building's history.

anonymous photo installation at Wassaic.

Over and over again residents told us that the building was a living thing, that they had to work with it, and that it effected their practice. Many of the artists were creating work that dealt with the landscape. Right away we fell into conversation with Jacob Rivkin, from Philadelphia, who presented a work in progress about the river. Photographs and video collaged the natural world and projected onto a mosquito net that fluttered in the breeze and lent the work and his barn stall studio an ethereal quality. One artist from Maine was using dirt from the area, burned wood ash and bees wax from a local farmer to coat strips of drop-cloth that were crudely torn and re-sewn together. Another young lady was researching notorious buildings her grandfather's now defunct construction company had built, such as Indian Point Nuclear Facility, and the current reactions, and comments, found on Google. Then Kelley Obrien, from Cleveland, fascinated us with a video projection that had local area landmarks superimposed on handwritten notes about the iron ore industry, the geology, and current local real estate development politics ... Having just moved here and being hungry to know more, I pressed her but she says the work is not finished and needs another 2 months. Unfortunately, the artists are packing up and leaving tomorrow. As I drove home, past the river and some of the recognizable sites from the art, I thought how, fortunately, there will be a whole new set of artists arriving at both residencies soon and I can't wait to visit them.

Sink in the Wassaic studios