The Best Laid Plans

Or, it finally caught up with me

It was bound to happen. I’ve spent since March 15, 2020 successfully evading the modern plague, but it finally got me. Communal living did the trick.

I’ve been in France for two weeks and at an artist residency with 22 others for the past 12 days. We’ve been eating, drinking, talking and building what I hope will be some lasting friendships. It’s a fabulous group of creatives in an inspirational setting.

The former stables, now studio spaces

Two days ago, one person was + for covid and today, three more of us, myself included. The good news is that I don’t feel too bad. I’m still working in my totally isolated studio all day, (making some good work, actually) and only have a stuffy nose and occasional cough. I have to eat my meals alone in my room, but I am getting excellent room service. I have made a new and wonderful friend here who is in my same boat, so we decided to have a solitary cocktail hour since neither of us are feeling poorly. All in all, lord willing and the creek don’t rise, knock on wood, and all other things superstitious, my first confirmed day of covid was not so bad.

I came with some thoughts as to what I hoped to do here, but no hard and fast goals. The planned approach generally has me feeling very pressured and often sets me up to fail. If you take a look at this previous post, you can see what I intended to do. I definitely worked toward that end during the first week, and will come home with some pieces I will use in upcoming solo shows this spring and summer. These two pieces are both 12 x 40 inches, so it’s been a lot of ground to cover.

I will need to finish this next one when I return home, since I don’t have some materials that I want to incorporate, but still, it is some work that I like very much.

And then, the unplanned, serendipitous part: I found a stack of watercolor paper in the hallway outside my studio which had been left by a previous resident. On the first page was scrawled “collage material”, along with a bright swirl of red acrylic paint. Subsequent sheets had swirly marks in other colors. I decided to bring them into the studio and use them for warm-up exercises, responding to the marks on the pages by making some of my own.

Here are a few that I’ve played with this week:

Mostly, I think they reflect how I’m feeling first thing in the morning when I work with them. Obviously, I needed more caffeine for Miss Cranky Pants on the left. Fun stuff, focused on the process, not the product.

Anyway, I know that leaving open time and headspace for things to just happen is a huge part of my creative process and I am very grateful that it is happening here in this gorgeous and inspiring setting.

I’d appreciate y’all sending me some love, light, prayers, energy, however you define the good wishes for a healthy rest of this journey.

I very much appreciate each one of you.