Fogo Island Arts Residency
I was awarded a residency at Fogo Island Arts, a program located on beautiful Fogo Island, NL. I was given access to Long Studio for a month and spent my summer soaking up the inspiration of the incredible landscape and architecture! It was an amazing experience and one I won't forget any time soon. View a tour of the inside of Long Studio here, and a tour of the outside here!
My walk to the studio was along the coast and it was 1 Kilometre long. This was quite a dramatic difference to my current home studio, but the walk gave me time to think about the work I was going to make and plan how I wanted to spend my time in the studio. View a timelapse of my beautiful "commute" here!
The location of the studio was incredible. In Joe Batt's Arm, surrounded by nature, it was impossible not to be inspired! The weather was also wonderful for the full month I was there, which was a miracle and helped my time on Fogo Island feel like a true staycation.
For this residency, I wanted to dive into sculpture, a media I'd never worked in before. I spent time sketching and photographing houses as the foundation of my subject matter, and then I started building a prototype. I first worked in paper until I found a form I was happy with, then scaled it up slightly in foam core. I knew I wanted the final project to be very big and I slowly worked my way up!
I took breaks from the studio by taking my dog Kingsley for hikes and walks along the beach. I think he had more fun at this residency than I did, it was a perfect place for a dog to explore. Watch a video of Kingsley frolicking on Fogo Island here.
Once I was happy with the shapes of my structure I started playing around with colour choices. I used Procreate to test out different colour options and mock up what the final sculpture could look like, which was a fun way to visualize what I was working towards.
Next up was a trip to the paint shop! I started painting my prototype to test out the colours I selected and made final tweaks before it was time to build the real sculpture. The colours I saw around me on Fogo Island were my inspiration!
Finally it was time to work with local carpenter Earl to turn my prototype into the sculpture I imagined. It was amazing to see something small come to life in full scale! Watch a video of my process here.
The final assembly of the work happened in the landscape. It was so much fun to load the work into the truck and travel around Fogo Island to document it in a variety of places, each one creating a completely different effect on the colours and interpretation of the work.
The title of this work is Formative, and it came from the idea of how a place can shape us, adding a piece on to who we are and affecting the way we assemble our identity. When you walk around it, the work shifts and transforms with different shapes and colours becoming visible, and each angle offers a unique perspective. The effect is most visible though video, view a video of the work here!
