Planning for Paris (an art residency in France)

The past three months have flown by in some kind of time warp. It feels like I’ve been hibernating, with short bursts of energy pushing me outside for fresh air, art class and activities for my son, but most of my time spent at home and looking inward.

Suddenly it’s April and there are there are 29 days until I get on a plane to Paris, and 27 days until I take the train from Paris to a two-week long artist residency in the French countryside. I started to more seriously prepare a few weeks ago. 

The fun things: ordering supplies and shipping them to the residency so they’ll be there when I arrive; booking flights and trains; researching restaurants and shops and parks and museums for my 24-hours in Paris on either end of the residency program. Thinking about baguettes and macarons, fromage and croissants. The lingering thought of going to the Taylor Swift Era’s tour in Paris, because what are the odds the timing of that show would be when I’m only a few hours away? 

The less-fun things: making sure my travel health insurance and life insurance is in order; actually packing, documenting my itinerary and my son’s schedule; thinking about how and when to tell him that I’ll be gone for 16 days. At five years old, he still doesn’t quite understand the concept of time so I’m planning to leave him a small gift for each day that I’m gone (thank you to Beth Kempton for this idea) and put them in his Christmas Advent calendar as a sort of count down to when I’m back. Though, at Christmas, he was constantly trying to take several days worth of treats at a time, so will this work? Who really knows! (Isn’t that always the case with kids, anyway).

Then, the question of what I want to work on while at the residency. Painting, yes. Writing, yes. Photography, yes. All of the creative things. I’m working through some ideas right now for my next painting series and my goal is to have it completed by the end of my residency. I’ve been participating in a wonderful Art and Emergence learning collaborative facilitated by artist and educator Heather Bird Harris for the past few week. Four of us have been researching and discussing topics such as ecological art, sustainability and materials, and art activism. I already work to keep my studio vegan/free of animal products, and am exploring how I can continue to minimize the impact my art has on the environment. 

I’ve spent the past week doing a materials exploration and playing with watercolor, acrylic ink, charcoal and collage, in addition to my normal acrylic paint. I’m also considering the logistics of getting my work back with me. I normally paint on canvas, and it is possible to ship rolled canvas back to the United States, but I’ve recently heard a few horror stories from past-residents (in one case, the work took months to finally get home to the artist, in another, all 5 large paintings an artist had shipped home were stolen or lost in transit - the shipping tube arrived completely empty).

above: in-progress material studies with charcoal, watercolor and acrylic ink on 100% cotton handmade recycled paper

I’ve also been participating in A Year of Writing Dangerously with Summer Brennan . I’m not yet sure what I’m writing (essays, poems, a novel, a memoir, all of the above?), but know that I will end the year with several thousand words (I'm at ~16,000 after the first five-week session). After a short break, the second session starts today and ends the last day of my residency. In total, we will write something each day for 224 days out of the year, or more if we choose to not take the breaks. I’m looking forward to seeing what a change of scenery inspires me to write, as it’s always in the most unexpected places where I’m glad I have my notebook to jot down all of my random observations and thoughts. 

I’ll share more about my trip prep over the next few weeks as I finalize what my painting series will be about, and of course, recap the experience when I’m back. If you’re interested in hearing more about my art residency in France, please subscribe to get email updates when new posts are ready.