Adaptability

Adaptability can be good for the soul and one’s work. I have just completed 4 weeks at the Ondarte Residency in Akumal Mexico and several new paintings with a welcome return to figurative work.

It’s easy for us to play it safe, but then what’s the point of making safe art? I highly recommend a residency experience for those of you who are looking for a way to move forward in your work. When you put yourself in a position of vulnerability; a totally new environment; surrounded by a group of new individuals/artists that you live, eat and work with on a daily level; in a foreign country with a foreign language and sometimes unfamiliar customs; and faced 24 hours with your self and your work … you will surface changed in one or many ways. This can be very beneficial for your work especially. It gives the artist a chance to explore, experiment with new methods and ideas, and the benefit is a new group of friends and contacts from other parts of the world.

I also recommend staying as long as you can in order to get into a new body of work… this takes time even when you have al the time in the world for your work. Of course there are distractions, especially here in Mexico, but they will have to wait until the end of the month. For now, happy and busy and working toward a strong start to a whole new direction – for the better! Viva Ondarte and residencies in general!