I spent last week in glorious head-down, focused studio work at Rebecca’s Mezoff’s Fortnight Residency location near Mancos, CO. Many thanks to Rebecca and Emily Haire, the manager of the residency program, for making me so welcome and so comfortable both in the casita and the adjacent studio. I had everything I could possibly need! Also, a shout-out to Tommye Scanlin for first planting the seed in my mind years ago about the benefits of a art residency.

The studio, with my supplies set up and ready to start painting and printing. This studio is well-equipped for weavers, but Rebecca generously allowed me to paint in there—with dropcloths!—and set up an urn filled with water. No looms were harmed in the painting studio!

I can’t recommend this experience highly enough. It’s amazing how much studio work you can accomplish when all you have to do, basically, is feed yourself. No chores, no errands, no one you need to see or talk to unless you choose to.

That said, it is healthy to get outside and walk occasionally, and I enjoyed walking near Mesa Verde park and watching for birds I don’t see at home. There are many cool archaeological and hiking sites within easy driving distance as well.

In my time at Luna Mesa, I focused on painting and printing papers for paper-weaving. I experimented with earth pigments, watercolors, and pastels. I worked quite a bit with acrylics on the gelli plate. I did some research to flesh out my ideas, and explored lace as a medium for collage. I made time for sketching outdoors, which I do not do enough of at home. I took my laptop to work on a project I have in mind. . .but didn’t turn it on all week! I also finally had a chance to read Tommye’s book Marking Time, and that was inspiring as well.

Here are a few photos of my experiments. I am recharged and excited about further explorations along these lines.

A paper weave using 1/8” strips of paper colored with Daniel Smith watercolor sticks, a fun variant on liquid watercolors.

A gelli print involving a mask and grasses and a few layers of paint.

This print is probably my favorite of the two dozen or so I made—and it was built on a mistake I had to cover up! I’m definitely going to further explore this layering of masks and stencils and paint.

Apologies for the skewed perspective of this pinned-up piece. Charcoal drawing directly on the paper, sprayed with fixative, then layered with a transferred charcoal drawing and paint on the gelli plate.

Collage involving print, charcoal drawing on tracing paper, found textile and bark strip.

Gelli print with commercial lace paper and stitched fragment.

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A fabulous art retreat in Colorado

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