I have been on a great adventure! Living and Sleeping the Artist Life in Noyers at https://laportepeinte.com/fr/
This artist residence has been a jumping off point for a very special project near and dear to my own lie experience. I am collecting the stories of women, black american women, who have chosen to move and make their lives in Europe. Just like me, they have their reasons. Buch each story has become so personal that here, during my residency, I have made some stunning connects with my own artwork that has been telling this story all along.
Uprooted, wild, intimate, old world, identity. These words hold for me a sacred space.
This journey includes creating portraits which are part collage, mixed media images that share the emotional landscapes of each participant. I have begun to explore body mapping art practices which is a form of art therepy and looking at aura colours connected to emotional and spiritual practice's to create each individuals portrait.
In my arrival here in Noyers, in an attempt to work bigger, I stumbled upon working on old bed linens, old european linen sheets passed down by generations. The connection was so strong, the subjects were asked to take a selfie sitting on their own bed. It's been an amazing connection, to push my story forward and share the many layers that we are feeling as transplants in Europe.
A second connection occurred as I was collecting wildflowers on my daily walks. I would create mono-prints on days that were used to unwind my thoughts. But this meditative action of pulling prints of these flowers and sometimes roots created these dreamlike reproductions of the real objects. I was amazed to see how they too connected to my main project.
In other words, I have been living and breathing art for the past month! My work space is a dream and I often sit outside where Mr White, the cat, sits with me in the sun and we are “two lazy cats”.
The house and other artists, writers, and dancers are incredible. Noyers is a fairy-tale book medieval village filled with artists and tourists and LIFE! My open Studio Is this weekend and I am so happy to share my journey with the public. Saturday and Sunday May 27 & 28 2023.
I know this is the first of many opportunities and I am so grateful that this is my first full month residency that has opened it's arms to me. Right place at the right time, as they say. peace and light.