I'm starting a blog about the artistic process I've just embarked on. Today I arrived at my artist residency at La Napoule Arts Foundation on the coast of the south of France, and wow. So far, ca va bien (Things are going well!) I initially met three of the other seven artists: Michael Harrison (composer), Anthony Miserendino (sculptor) and Tom Evans (interactive visual artist) and they're all wonderful. We grabbed lunch in town from the bakery (I translated using my rusty French). We got a tour of the chateau and villa. Turns out I'm staying in the chateau itself in one of the towers! It has a view of the ocean from three widows, as does my studio on the floor above it. Sleeping and working to the sound of the ocean is one of my favorite things. It's a little chilly today (about 30s, which is not usual). But it will warm up to the 50s and 60's within the next few days. I'm trying to decide how I'm going to write: according to a plan? On several projects? Focusing on only one? And I need to figure out when it makes sense to play it by ear and let myself give in to exploration, inspiration and the idea of sometimes Doing Nothing.
I met the rest of the artists at dinner and I think we might come out of this with some collaborations. The others are Louise Laffaille (painter), Markus Baenziger (sculptor), Prem Jish (curator) and Tracy Prince (non-fiction writer).
Tomorrow, we'll show examples of our work to each other, and I think I'll show them the mood book for SUNDOWN, the supernatural TV series I'm developing about racism in 1930s America. I'm extremely grateful to La Napoule Arts Foundation for giving me this amazing opportunity!
Some pics of where I'm staying...
The view from beside my room
The entrance to the tower
One view from my room
The dining hall where we have our dinners
The Spring 2018 Residents
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