When the font and text returned, I returned to the page.
I was still or walking, or watching the deer graze the property every evening. When I wrote, I wrote, and when I didn't, I wrote in other ways. I wrote more in one week than I had in the past several years. I also worked on my third poetry collection, which has forced me to stretch the most. The first of which, a collection of essays that dissects a futile relationship with Blackness and America as well as a few other cultural interrogations. Doing so allowed me to actualize the direction for two different projects, both inspired by James Baldwin. While at Baldwin, it was good to disrupt that. With a family home, my life usually evolves in circadian fashion. I knew I wanted to reset, but I also knew that I wanted to take advantage of the space that had been cultivated. I arrived at Baldwin at a crossroad, in several ways. The time to rest, create, read, watch, think, and daydream at Baldwin has enriched my creative practice, and I know will have a lasting impact on my work." Movies also have a big influence on my work, and while at Baldwin I watched: Kill List (2011), White Men Can’t Jump (1992), Argentina, 1985 (2022), Annihilation (2018), The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), and Shame (2011). I read Experiments in Imaging Otherwise by Lola Olufemi, Complaint! By Sara Ahmed, and re-read House of Psychotic Women by Kier-la Janisse. I painted, sculpted, and embroidered as part of an ongoing project called Feces Will Be Excreted, while listening to A Silent Fury and The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera, Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh, Nomenclature by Dionne Brand, and Against Memoir by Michelle Tea. And while at Baldwin, I was able to sink into my desire to read and listen to audiobooks all day, every day. Reading is a big part of my creative practice. I stretched in the yoga studio, walked the beautiful grounds and visited the nearby reservoir, ate Chef Felicia’s delicious meals, worked at my painting studio setup on the dining room table, and read outside among the birds, flowers, and trees. That made me very well suited to the expansive solitary time I had at Baldwin, and it was a joy to be there. I love time to be alone with myself and my work. The people close to me know I relish being a hermit artist.
0 kommentar(er)
