This is my second year creating my own personal artist residency. It was a renewing and refreshing week thinking about and making art.
Art Retreat Week 2024
Art Retreat Week 2024 was a huge success! I loved the week I took last year so much that I decided to do it again this year. Here’s the recap of my week.
First I began a few weeks ago by starting a list of projects so I’d have a few ideas of what to do for Art Retreat Week 2024. I did do a few of those from my list. But some of the projects I deliberately crossed off and some I just didn’t feel like tackling in the moment. I also took the time at the beginning of the week to do some journaling about my work and I feel like that ended up directing a good bit of my focus this week.
Monday
Today was a grab bag of a day but a great start. I began by making a video for the United Artists Collective to use later in the year and managed to pull off the most perfect print job ever in my life. I took a picture of the journal spread I wanted to print. Then I transferred the image to my computer, opened it in photo editing software and it just printed? I don’t know what to tell you about how I managed it but it was the most glorious print job of my life and here’s the video so you can see it and hear how clearly flabbergasted I am:
The book I made for the video turned out really well mostly because of the awesome print that I used for the cover. I uploaded the finished video to YouTube for future UAC usage.
Then I also did some writing about the work I’m doing currently. I used Ira Progoff’s “Dialogue with a work” and it was a really lovely session where I did a deep dive into my love of bookmaking.
After that, I finished up a few geode watercolor slices by adding some pen lines and cutting them out.
Tuesday
Today was a little less frenetic overall. I started off the day by doing some reading. I caught up on multiple artists’ newsletters. Those always end up hanging out in my inbox for way too long because I don’t want to rush through reading them. It was good to have some uninterrupted time to read about what a few other artists I admire are up to.
Over the past few days, I’ve spent some time watercoloring geodes. So I decided to go back to those and practice some more. I have a grand plan for watercoloring some big geodes but this is definitely a case where I need to practice quite a bit at a smaller size to perfect what I’m looking for before launching into the big ones.
While I was watercoloring, I did some thinking about the writing I did yesterday about bookmaking. So I am contemplating what I can work on this week to further my bookmaking skills.
Wednesday
This week has been about filling the well as much as creating new work. In that spirit, I watched multiple videos today on the Secret Belgian Binding technique, which is also called criss cross binding. And I think I’ve got it! I haven’t made one yet, but I understand what is happening much better than from just looking at pictures.
From there I decided to get my bookbinding book out and look through it. Several years ago, I had made the intention to work through the book in order because the skills build on each other but of course got sidetracked with other things. So I made four book prototypes from Alyssa Golden’s “Making Handmade Books.” I made those books while hanging out with my friend Elaine from Joybook during her 2-hour Creative Coworking. Here’s my Venetian Blind Book I made while coworking:
I also made some stripy rainbow hearts for a project at church. Then, after all of that work, I did some studio tidying.
I ended my day with watching a panel discussion on building oracle decks, which is something I’m interested in but have never explored. I didn’t get to watch all of it so I’ll want to wrap that up on Thursday.
Thursday
Started off today by adding some ideas to my blogging idea list. I’m trying to get better about writing ideas down as they come to me so I always have something to pull from for this blog.
Finished up watching the panel discussion. I’m still processing my thoughts and ideas about this. I’m really interested in creating a deck like this but A) I don’t feel like it’s the right time because B) I don’t have a good concept mapped out and also C) I don’t really connect with tarot cards/readings very much. So I need to spend some additional time thinking on it. One of the things the discussion touched on was making a deck just for personal use and I was really vibing with that idea.
One of the things I’ve noticed this week is how often I get distracted. Because all I have going on this week is art making, when I’m not art making I pause and consider what it is I am doing and then decide if I want to stop doing it (scrolling on my phone) or if I wanna keep doing it (playing with the dog). I get distracted a lot. I’m sure that’s true for many of us. But this week has really highlighted it for me. And it’s making me very protective of the art making hours I do have in a regular week.
I ended up going down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos about journaling, note keeping, and sketchbooks. While I listened to those I decided to work in my Red Leather Journal. This book has been an interesting work for me because I have deliberately considered texture to be my number one priority for this work. I’ve added fabric and crochet and a ton of different mediums and kinds of paper to this book. It’s been a real adventure.
I ended the day by finishing reading “Your art will save your life” by Beth Pickens which I’m hoping to review sometime soon here on the blog.
Friday
Friday was a bit of a haze because my dog barked half the night. I ended up getting a bit of a slow start and then having a nap in the afternoon. But I was able to watch some additional bookmaking videos and finish another prototype. I also put a bunch of books on hold at the library on Matisse and several other artists.
Next I went excavating in some crochet projects that I made then set aside and found a piece that I’m going to use for a book cover. I have some ideas of what I’m going to do, but I need to do some additional trial and error work.
The question of the week
I’m really happy with how the week went! Embarking on art retreat week always lends a sense of excitement and new exploration to my work. Even if what I do isn’t that far outside the norm of my usual working week, it still feels special. That hype encourages me in a way that’s hard to pinpoint and explain. While this week isn’t a formal residency, I feel like I’m treating it as if it were. It feels like the building blocks to something good.
My question arising out of this week’s work is: How do I sustain this kind of excitement the rest of the year? One thing I’m thinking about is the journaling I did at the beginning of the week and how it helped me set intentions for the week. I’m wondering if I should spend some time at the beginning of each month, doing the same. If I took a bit of time to focus up at the beginning of each month, I’m wondering if that intentionality for a project or a group of projects month to month would help me sustain some excitement.
Non-ordinary time
Another thing I’ve thought about this week is that scheduling art retreat week in the summer allows me a mid year reset much like my winter retreat allows me to set goals and intentions for the new year. And I love the symmetry of that. I really think that having something midyear to encourage me to keep going is important. It’s funny how I’m reinventing some wheels here. People throughout history have set schedules and rhythms and calendars to mark the passage of time, but also to be fully present and engaged in each season. So here I am doing the same thing with my art practice. It’s not a bad thing at all. I’m just entertained at myself for sort of backing into this process.
Are you doing any sort of art retreat/vacation this year? I want to hear all about it! Catch up with me on socials, email me, or go old school and leave a comment on this post to be immortalized for all of time.
If you liked this post and don’t want to miss any news from me, sign up for my PencilBooth newsletter. It will only be 2-4 items about once a month! You’ll definitely get a pic of my dogs because who doesn’t love dogs?! Sign Up here.
Again, loved. I think I am going to see if my library has the Beth Pickens book that you read. I love your residency you create for yourself. I think I want to do this next year to. Maybe a co-residency??? WINK WINK. I am reacclimating to reality after coming home from a two week vacation in Canada and my creative well is SO FULL of ideas and inspiration. What I am struggling with at the moment is how to ride the waves of this creative mojo while stepping back into my everyday routine and it feels hard and tricky to do so. My studio feels “full of stuff” right now, and I know I need to reorganize and restructure things so I can feel better about creating in this space, I knew this before vacay and coming back into my studio with new supplies and ideas to implement, my space feels a bit tight right now. I know I will figure it out, but right now my priority is moving back into my routine with ease and grace. I bought a new notebook for creative brain dumping and list making for “all the things” floating and marinading in my head right now. I feel like I struggle finding a way to organize my thoughts sometimes and I am not sure how to format a notebook to help me see things more visually. I do know a brain dump and mind map will help me move forward so I am going to stick with that small thing that I know I can do.
Yes! We should coordinate next summer!! My end of day studio journaling notebook has been so useful for helping me keep track of what I’ve been doing and what I want to do! And I’ve been mind mapping too!