Artist in our Midst artist-in-residence March- June 2020
Dear friends and art lovers,
Beginning in March through June of this strange year, with the support of the Sunshine Coast Arts Council and Sechelt Downtown Business Association, I was thrilled to be the inaugural 'Artist in our Midst' of a newly established artist-in-residence program. A vacant storefront in downtown Sechelt in the BMO building was generously provided as a working artist's studio with plenty of room to explore and develop ideas with an eye to community engagement through art. This would provide a challenge in a time of social distancing and isolation.
At the beginning of March, I brought my selected art supplies to the place I came to call Studio S. Starting a new project always has a few false starts, but once I'd established my routine, I was on a roll. I worked 5 days a week drawing strange and fantastical images on the windows and creating dreamlike collage creatures, mounting them on sticks (almost like shadow puppets) and grouping and rearranging them in the windows in a strange dance that people could view without entering the studio. Unwittingly, an art exhibition in isolation was created fulfilling the requirement for community engagement by being accessible to all, safely from the street. My final contribution and leave behind was to enlarge a few select collages and wheat-paste them to the wall on Periwinkle lane.
As part of the Artist in our Midst residence, I took over the sunshinecoastarts Instagram account for a little over a week in order to share the work and progress coming out of Studio S. I attempted to engage interested art fans and managed to add some followers to the SCAC account. I even had curious visitors tap on the window after learning the location of Studio S and what was going on there through Instagram. The takeover also drew new followers to my own personal profile, as well. While providing challenges as a closed studio, I managed to find creative and playful ways to connect and engage with the community visually.
The studio was an enjoyable and productive experience for me and I was able to focus, explore and develop a series of new works. As well, several opportunities emerged as a result of the work I created during my artist-in residence. I was contacted by North Vancouver's Artists for Gordon Smith Gallery to participate as a featured artist along with Karin Bubas for AFK at Home video hosted by artist and educator Amelia Epp. Also, a thrilling invitation for Artist-in-residence at AFK Gordon Smith Gallery is being planned for Spring 2021.
There was a social-distancing interview with Rik Jespersen for the Coast Reporter and countless interactions with people looking through the window at the art I was making. Also in response to the weird and wonderful collages I created at the Studio I have ventured into the production of custom designs for t shirts, ready to be ordered and worn. There will be more products and ideas to come so please check back for up-dates. In the mean time open the link for a boo at the Collage Character designs, order a shirt or two and take them for a walk.
Thanks to all for the support to explore and build new work. Having an unfamiliar studio space and trying to engage the community in the age of social distancing forced me to flex a different set of creative muscles and is an important part of my forward creative momentum.
Warm Regards, Nadina
