What is an Artist-in-Residence?
Artist-in-Residence programs offer individuals an opportunity to take a break from their usual obligations and environment to focus on their artistic endeavors and the creative process. A residency may include living quarters and studio space. Specific provisions vary depending on the hosting venue or organization. Many artists use this time to develop new techniques, use new materials, and/or immerse themselves in a new culture. National parks, museums, galleries, and municipalities are just some of the venues offering residencies in visual arts, music, writing, and other art forms.
Manassas National Battlefield Park
I spent May 1 – May 12, 2017 as Artist-in-Residence at Manassas National Battlfield Park. I focused on bringing together the cultural, historical, and natural resources of the Park through words and mixed media. For this project I created three mixed media panels with layered images to represent how nature, history, and culture overlap at the Park. I included Civil War maps of the Bull Run area, quotes from soldiers diaries and letters, an excerpt from a Walt Whitman poem, and watercolor images that I painted from archived photographs. I also added natural elements. For presentation to the Park, I created a box covered with handmade paper for the three panels. The technique I used was a faux encaustic to add to the aged look of the panels.
Panel 2 – Home on the Battlefield
The Other Side of Bull Run. Before, during, and after the battles, the Bull Run area was home to farmers and tradespeople. This mixed media panel depicts the many layered life of the land -home to humans and animals, battlefield, farmland. I used gesso, acrylic paint, natural materials, watercolor paper, pieces of reproduced battlefield maps and applied those to an artist canvas. I used a faux encaustic technique and instant coffee to give the piece the aged appearance. Lots of layers! This is one panel of a three panel project donated to Manassas National Battlefield Park for my Artist-in-Residency.
Catoctin Mountain Park
In September 2015 I had the honor to serve as Artist-in-Residence for the National Park System at Catoctin Mountain Park in Thurmont, Maryland. You may read my blog posts starting on the home page of this site. As an Artist-in-Residence, I donated a piece of artwork to the Catoctin Forest Alliance who sponsored my residency. Here are photos of the mixed media nature journal that I created and donated.
