Day 9, we started off with talking about the book “God in the Gallery” by Daniel Siedell. This was the other book we read for our residency together. This book differed a lot from Hyde’s book, but was nonetheless gave us some insightful things to ponder and discuss.
We had more studio visitors today. (This was a regular occurrence, but I have only mentioned a few here). This time, it was a large group from First Baptist Vancouver, a patron church of this project. Each of us shared with the group our vision for the body of work and our process during the whole residency. We were grateful for them to stop by and show such enthusiasm and support along the way. They have gone to great lengths to make each artist feel welcome and encouraged – and we have all felt so blessed by this group! There is a small write-up about the residency (from the church) here.
As Matt mentioned in his interview, art making is hard work. It seems that each of us has been extremely productive in such a short amount of time. But one thing that happens to me (and I think all of us) is that once I’ve spent days and days on end in the studio with such intensity – I start doubting my instincts and the original vision for the body of work. I experience a lot of doubt and frustrations, and sometimes wonder, “What in the world am I doing?” In those moments, I do a lot of praying. There have been times when I’ve (in those moments) thrown away a piece of art, or trashed it completely. And as Matt pointed out in his interview, sometimes that’s what needs to be done, but other times you just need to set it aside and get some perspective and come back to it when you’re in a better state of mind.
For me, this pushing through (THE REALLY HARD WORK) had to be done today. I reached a point in my work where I could’ve settled, but I knew each piece needed more layers in order to be more consistent in the overall look. So I stayed late in the studio, and with Erik’s encouragement to do so, I pushed through until I felt like the work was satisfactory.
