August 5, 2024 | Franchement, I had a life-changing, enriching, joyful experience during my artist residency at Yellow Cube Gallery in Paris, France last month.
The program formally included a studio space, materials, curatorial meetings and a final group exhibition. In actuality, gallery director Roxanne Hemery and her team offered so much more. Do you want to do a video interview (see below)? - Sure. How about we put together an Open Studio on Friday night to show your work in progress? - Okay! Do you want to come by for a glass of wine? - Do I?! (It turned into multiple bottles with Roxanne's international artistic community.)
Here are some more takeaways and photos from my most recent stay in Paris.
Trust, artistic freedom and a daily practice
It is a gift to be given time and space with no expectation of the outcome. My invitation was tendered on the basis of trust in the residency process and in me that I would show up.
I gladly showed up every day. I loved the routine of heading to the studio in the morning after a café breakfast. And I surprised myself with the ease with which I said "yes" to emerging opportunities.
Instead of conceptualizing a final grand oeuvre worthy of a gallery wall I took my time to work things out on sheets and sheets of paper. You can trace this process in the images below where you see iterations of ideas from pencil sketches to watercolor studies to acrylic paintings. In early drawings of "Playtime is Over" I tried multiple angles, layouts and styles to tell the story, ultimately settling on a symmetrical heads-on perspective that became more abstract in the step from watercolor to acrylics. My practice of drawing wolves and dogs (which began in childhood and more recently resurfaced with the adoption of two dogs) led to canine creatures showing up in land- and cityscapes as the last survivors or the faithful companions of human refugees (e.g. in "Le droit au retour.")
Roxanne and I intentionally showcased this journey in the Open Studio we hosted toward the end of my residency, opting out of a more traditional closing exhibition. In addition, I return to my studio Maison Depot in Brooklyn, NY with a portfolio full of starting points for further exploration!
Inspiration
A large part of making art for me is to work out ideas in different ways and show new perspectives. There's nothing like traveling to new surroundings to shift your view!
Throughout Paris I encountered street art, political posters and activist stickers, and I've often considered France as having a strong history of political movements and expression among the general public. Thus a "Gaza - halte au massacre" message stuck to a lamppost encouraged me to respond from a gallery wall, revisiting themes from my series "All I See is Ruins" about the destruction in Palestine which I began in New York from a new perspective and with a refreshed sense of international solidarity.
Another prompt to try new things was choice of materials. I traveled light with a pocket sized watercolor set - I more often work in acrylics or oils - and stocked up on quality paper in bulk, challenging myself to express ideas through that medium, leaving more room on the page. (I did bring my favorite oil pencils for support.)
Community
Even in my short time there I gathered a sense of community surrounding the gallery and its owner.
Exhibit A is an impromptu balcony party at Roxanne's apartment as friends reached out throughout the evening and showed up carrying drinks and snacks. Many of them returned for my Open Studio the next day.
My former Maison Depot studio mate Lyla Dushas who participated in the Yellow Cube Gallery x La Superette du Quotidien residency in April found herself back in Paris during my stay and her first stop from the airport was a Yellow Cube Gallery event for another artist-in-residence, Desiree Scarborough.
I can't wait to get together with these and more artists in September for the residency's group exhibition, SUMMER IS OVER.
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