Brush Creek Artist Residency..oh so sweet!
I just returned from two weeks at the Brush Creek Artist Residency, which is a residency amidst the Brush Creek dude ranch-a beautiful dude ranch in the platte valley near Saratoga, Wyoming. I must say, it was a life changing experience. I was fortunate enough to be with 7 other amazing, supportive, engaged artists. It is such a gift to have time to focus on your work away from daily life. It gave me the needed room to explore some new ideas and flail around, which is an uncomfortable but necessary part of the artistic process. To get any good work, often we must make a lot of bad work. And in daily life when we are trying to meet deadlines and sell pieces, often what falls away is the exploratory nature of creating.
Brush Creek Trees
Old Brush Creek Ranch Sign
Those two weeks gave me time and space to try some new things, struggle with some old work, and most importantly, connect with other artists doing the same thing. I learned so much from the other artists. It is such a treat to be able to eat family style dinner together with a group of artist after everyone worked all day in their respective medium. We had many enlightening discussions about process, the struggles and gifts of being an artist, and above all else just connected about this strange life we all live. A few days into it I felt as if I landed in a country where everyone spoke my language, but I had been away so long I forgot I wasn’t speaking my native tongue at home. I have many artist friends and colleagues I am in touch with in my daily life, but we rarely have large chunks of uninterrupted time to really discuss our daily work and process. This can be an isolating career at times and that isolation sneaks up on you, unawares.
View From Artist Camp
What is Meg up to?
I had been working on painting series of Contemporary Life in Wyoming and planned to continue that at Brush Creek. But once I got there I had a really hard time painting at first. I just wasn’t feeling the “magic” about this series anymore. One day I decided to stop struggling in the studio and to go outside and play around with my outdoor installation series again. I have wanted to pick this body of work up again, but I wasn’t planning on doing anything with it at Brush Creek. But once I let myself go in that direction, it came together. I ended up doing two temporary installations at the creek with willows and bones. After that, I was able to return to the paintings with more success.
from “Fishing For Our History” Installation
from Installation #2 (unnamed so far)
Above is sneak preview of these two installations. I have done a prairie series before, for which I am still doing more pieces, but this is the first water installations I’ve done. I really like to incorporate found materials and movement, like wind or water, into my outdoor installations. They are so far always temporary, as I take them down after the initial showing and capturing a lot of footage. Then I go back to the office/studio and attempt to assemble a movie and photographic show out of the pieces. Stay tuned to see more when they are ready to show!
I would like to sincerely thank Beth and Bruce White and the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, it’s wonderful director, Katie Christensen and the other artists I was fortunate enough to get to know there: Bill Haskell, painter; Anh-THuy Nguyen, conceptual artist; Kristen Martincic, printmaker; Carolyne Wright, poet; Anne Guzzo, composer; and Jardine Libaire, writer. All do really amazing work– look them up! I was honored to be one of them. Thank you all, Strange America. 😉
Prairie Buffet Send Off Party!
Thanks to all who attended the send off party before the Prairie Buffet hit the road – and thanks to you all for helping set up and take amazing photos!
Setting up for the Send Off party on the prairie and enjoying drinks, appetizers, and cameras during the golden hour.
Exhibitor’s Choice Award at 2012 Western Design Conference!
I premiered my latest furniture creation at the 2012 WDC in Jackson, Wyoming, where I won one of the Exhibitor’s Choice Awards! It is such an honor to have the respect of other artists–the place was full of amazing work! Thus, it is not surprising that we had a four way tie for “Exhibitor’s Choice.” Thanks to all who came and supported it, the WDC staff and all the great artists. I’m already looking forward to next year and tearing up the dance floor at the Wort and Cowboy again with my fellow artists after a long day “behaving” at the show. 😉
Prairie Sentinel Buffet
Solid wood construction using reclaimed materials: barn wood, barbed wire, old hand-hewn cedar fence posts, antique nails and steel. The barbed wire is Michael Kelley’s “Thorny Fence,” the first to be patented, 1868. The door pulls are square nails, torch heated and shaped into pulls. All carcass joinery is mortise and tenon, and frame and panel, with handcut dovetails for the cherry drawer. The steel panels are streaked with a custom patina. The piece is finished with a polymerized tung oil.
The design is evocative of the short-grass prairie. Fence lines arise from the vast expanse of the golden grasslands delineating checkerboard boundaries and containing herds of cattle. Below the surface, life is deep and rich with ground squirrels, nesting night hawks, countless insects, and the deep, determined roots of prairie grasses, stretching down to reach secret aquifers below.
Jackson Hole Western Design Conference this weekend!
Western Design COnference 2012
I leave Wednesday for Jackson and the WDC. I’m very excited to be in this juried show and see all the amazing functional art. If you are in the area come by! I can’t post pictures of my piece, “Prairie Sentinal Buffet”, until after the show, but I look forward to doing so. It is a show piece for sure. 😉
Summer 2012 Shows
I am pleased to announce my summer and fall furniture show schedule. I applied for some long shots and got in, including the exclusive Western Design Conference in Jackson Hole! If you are in the area or know anyone who is, pass on the information for these sure to be good shows:
July 6th-8th: Breckenridge Mountain Arts Festivals; Breckenridge, CO.
September 1st-3rd: Breckenridge Mountain Arts Festivals; Breckenridge, CO.
September 6th-9th: Western Design Conference, Jackson Hole, WY.
I also got accepted for a residency program at Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts just outside Saratoga. I’m very excited for the opportunity! I will be there, painting away September 17-October 1st.
My Lil Shop on the Prairie
Custom Saloon Doors
This fun custom project was for clients (and long time friends) in Denver, CO. They had a vision of old saloon doors for their bathroom and we came up with this design, including the custom R brand for their last names (Both begin with R).
The frame is reclaimed barn siding and the panels are reclaimed snow-fence, all using traditional joinery techniques. The “R” brand is burned into the panels. The doors swing on café door hinges. I can do any brand request.
Roth-Radcliff Saloon Doors
The doors enclose the toilet room form the larger bathroom:
Saloon Doors