Jodi Colella - 2015 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
Mary Janes express the cultural pressures felt by many, but particularly women, whose stifling restrictions permeate all their physical spaces. Feelings that are exacerbated by the pandemic, an external force that keeps us contained, isolated and confined to domestic spaces. There’s also a force from within that elicits circumspection. ‘Olive’ represents our state of disorientation and irresolute submission to something beyond our control.
Olive and Pink were created in early summer for the show Faculty of Utterance at Boston Sculptors Gallery that was rescheduled from April to July 2020. The other works existed before pandemic and conceptually developed further during the trauma of a sudden shutdown. Creating these new pieces allowed me to reexamine and confirm that though originating from a personal place, they speak for more - those who have succumbed to the virus and the emergence of voices through social unrest from those who have long been ignored.
Olive and Pink were created in early summer for the show Faculty of Utterance at Boston Sculptors Gallery that was rescheduled from April to July 2020. The other works existed before pandemic and conceptually developed further during the trauma of a sudden shutdown. Creating these new pieces allowed me to reexamine and confirm that though originating from a personal place, they speak for more - those who have succumbed to the virus and the emergence of voices through social unrest from those who have long been ignored.
Merill Comeau - 2011 & 2017 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
When the world became dangerous and in-person connections verboten, I fortunately could step out my door into a small yard, plant, and spy buds and sprigs of green growth. The miracle of spring provided solace and an optimistic sense of survival in the face of the corona virus outbreak. In the past few years, I’ve been making conceptual and abstract work exploring social justice issues. In social distancing, I stepped away from my usual obligations and activities and returned to my love of landscape as inspiration. My materials are repurposed discards from family and friends, they carry memories of lives lived. I compost and launder deconstructed garments and linens, reconfiguring the worm-eaten snippets into embroidered landscapes. I spent copious hours hand stitching. Surrounded by materials reminding me of my caring community, nature and stitching provided, and will continue to provide, an antidote to isolation and anxiety.
Lilian Cooper - 2005 & 2014 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
This is a series of drawings of the five trees in my new garden. I have always been fascinated by trees and to have my own is extraordinary. This is a series of portraits of my own fruit trees (two plums, one apple, a cherry and a very small pear) in a tiny urban garden.
The pandemic created a discipline. I decided to do all the things I liked doing and by enjoying myself I would get through the severity of the experience and the accompanying isolation. Giving the day structure was a way of making more time for everything.
The pandemic has affected my process positively, I rediscovered an intense, focused way of finding joy in small things. I realize an understanding of my immediate environs has a bigger implication and can be extrapolated to the larger world around me. My time felt more precious than ever before.
The pandemic created a discipline. I decided to do all the things I liked doing and by enjoying myself I would get through the severity of the experience and the accompanying isolation. Giving the day structure was a way of making more time for everything.
The pandemic has affected my process positively, I rediscovered an intense, focused way of finding joy in small things. I realize an understanding of my immediate environs has a bigger implication and can be extrapolated to the larger world around me. My time felt more precious than ever before.
Uday Dhar - 2006 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
All works are a part of the series: “ All I can give you is a life of worry and uncertainty.” – (Almodovar)
2020 has been a tough year for many reasons - worries about catching COVID-19, isolation, finances, and the impact of politics in America on a person of color. In March 2020, when New York City went into lockdown, I stopped going to my studio and worked from home. These small works are my efforts to manage the unmanageable.
The size forced me to explore “interiority”. I find solace in doing works that I can complete in 1 or 2 sessions. There is a long Asian tradition of making small unsigned works. The paintings start as spontaneous line drawings. As color is added, the shapes develop. In making the series, I have toggled between efforts to cultivate inner peace and giving form to anxiety. They are emblems of resilience.
I may not return to my studio, and my work has changed. I will work from home and focus on small-scale works.
2020 has been a tough year for many reasons - worries about catching COVID-19, isolation, finances, and the impact of politics in America on a person of color. In March 2020, when New York City went into lockdown, I stopped going to my studio and worked from home. These small works are my efforts to manage the unmanageable.
The size forced me to explore “interiority”. I find solace in doing works that I can complete in 1 or 2 sessions. There is a long Asian tradition of making small unsigned works. The paintings start as spontaneous line drawings. As color is added, the shapes develop. In making the series, I have toggled between efforts to cultivate inner peace and giving form to anxiety. They are emblems of resilience.
I may not return to my studio, and my work has changed. I will work from home and focus on small-scale works.
Anne Dushanko-Dobek - 2003 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
Normally I am creating large installations in forests, fields, oceans or even French villages. Needless to say, the pandemic made these projects impossible. Fortunately, I received several calls for virtual exhibitions which allowed me to continue creating work, albeit on a much smaller scale.
For the call from Drawing Rooms, “Prayers for the Pandemic” I addressed the impact of the COVID-19 virus on two disparate but critical groups of workers whose efforts we often take for granted: poultry processors (usually migrants and immigrants) and medical personnel. During the lockdowns I worked out of a small room in my condo using fabric fragments, scraps from an earlier collages and repurposed PPE to create two flags. Both “Perilous Journeys” and “In Memoriam” were installed in various locations once the lockdowns were lifted in July. The pandemic gave me space to rethink my processes while continuing to focus on social justice issues.
For the call from Drawing Rooms, “Prayers for the Pandemic” I addressed the impact of the COVID-19 virus on two disparate but critical groups of workers whose efforts we often take for granted: poultry processors (usually migrants and immigrants) and medical personnel. During the lockdowns I worked out of a small room in my condo using fabric fragments, scraps from an earlier collages and repurposed PPE to create two flags. Both “Perilous Journeys” and “In Memoriam” were installed in various locations once the lockdowns were lifted in July. The pandemic gave me space to rethink my processes while continuing to focus on social justice issues.
Josh Dorman - 2011 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
For decades, I had been making work filled with apocalyptic images--plumes of smoke, raging fires, floating viruses, rising seas, extinction of species. The worlds of my work were always imbued with beauty and humor. Making work in the pandemic felt almost redundant. This large painting began in January with a base layer of 1940's wallpaper. As the plague spread and the bigotry and hatred promulgated by the president and his minions grew, the quaint scenery of the wallpaper vanished, overtaken by disasters of all kinds. Inspired by Breughels "The Triumph of Death", I found comfort in creating a feast of tragedy.
Cathy Doocy Drake - 2001 & 2003 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
In the early days of the pandemic my studio was a welcome “safe place” outside my home. There are few artists, each having our own space. I felt lucky that I could go to work. However, it was increasingly difficult to focus on painting. I cannot paint out my worries. I have to be in a “happy” place to enjoy my work. With no exhibitions on the horizon, I turned to my other profession - gardener. While I’ve never considered “retiring" from art, the pandemic has made me think about my life. It brought home the reality that I am “elderly”, what?! And more importantly, do I need a studio outside my home? The answer has been tabled, at least until my current lease runs out, but life changes are coming. I feel good about that and thinking about it has brought me back to the studio with new enthusiasm.
Jessica Dunne - 2002 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
I spent the earliest days of the pandemic in at a residency in Maine, scanning the landscape for encouraging news. And drawing trees. I asked myself “should I stay or should I go?”
Back home and locked in, I eyed doorknobs. Never has a doorknob had such allure. I drew this knob in self-defense or I might have been out that door.
As isolation grew routine, I signed up sulking for Zoom life drawing. I discovered that I could get very close to the model without invading her space. I’m hooked. Limitations can be your friend and adversity spurs ingenuity.
Back home and locked in, I eyed doorknobs. Never has a doorknob had such allure. I drew this knob in self-defense or I might have been out that door.
As isolation grew routine, I signed up sulking for Zoom life drawing. I discovered that I could get very close to the model without invading her space. I’m hooked. Limitations can be your friend and adversity spurs ingenuity.
Robert Regis Dvořák - 1999 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
These are just three of the many oil paintings that I have made during the pandemic. Each painting is an emotional response to a moment in time. I have worked exclusively in oil with palette knives, which is a departure for me. Until the pandemic, most of my recent work had been watercolor paintings and drawings. Traveling to my studio once a week to paint has been a life saver. Getting out of the house and painting kept me sane. It has also been the catalyst for this whole new body of work.
Stephen Dydo - 2012 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
I'm atypical of Weir grantees in that my main art form is music, During my stay at Weir, I worked with the visual artist Susan Haire. Since then, we began to collaborate primarily in video, with myself as the technical lead. During the pandemic, when I have been doing all my work solo, I have become comfortable making videos based on my music. This is a new experience for me, and my work has become more accessible through this medium. I expect, when all artists will be able to work freely again with each other, that two things will happen: First, there will be a huge upsurge in public presentations of all the arts, and I will be collaborating again, probably to a greater extent than before; and second, that the new personal style that I have developed during this period will affect all my future work.
Stephen Dydo - Farewell to 2020 - November-December 2020, 1920x1080 pixels - Music Video
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