Days Twenty and Twenty-one: The Final Chapter

DAY TWENTY

I thought it was pretty extraordinary that this plant was engineered to hold the morning dew in perfect droplets on each of its serrated edges.  High-five to you, Universe.  The Rensing homestead has many worn edges, cobwebs, and my favorite…moss and mushrooms.

Blanket of moss on the driveway wall.

Tiniest red baby mushrooms in all of the land.

I was hellbent on finishing this painting series before I left.  I wanted to have one neatly packaged project to take home but I was rushing it.  I wanted this experience to be over with because it has been very challenging.  From the first week it was obvious that my expectations were very different than the reality of this residency and I've been stumbling over that ever since.  

Residencies are a gift of time to devote completely to your chosen art form.  They are not strictly self indulgent non-stop blissful blocks of time - each one has its own unique challenges.  The benefits of a residency have to outweigh the sacrifices that have to be made such as financial strains, being away from loved ones, etc. and as I sit here on my final day at Rensing with my bags packed, the sentence that keeps bubbling up in my mind is:  "I left my life for this...was it worth it?".  The knee-jerk reaction is that yes it was worth it because it made me realize how exceptional my daily life really is.  

So the series is not complete but I am ok with that.  Below are the finished four pieces and the final two are well into being 3/4 of the way completed.  I am looking forward to seeing this work in my studio - away from the environment that created them.  I am glad the final details will be done at home...unhurried.  I've been thinking of a name for this series and Someone Else's Homestead keeps surfacing.  The subject matter is pulled from another person's personal space, my part was selecting the objects that appealed to me.  So am I telling someone else's story through their objects or am I using their objects to tell a story of my own?

DAY TWENTY-ONE

in-progress sewing machine detail

in-progress tree stump behind sewing machine