I’m coming to a natural, and very satisfying end to my self-chosen artist residency: Following the Thread.
I’ve been reflecting on my work and time in the studio and have gathered some of my thoughts and experiences.
First, I really enjoyed the combination of a framework but with the open-ended freedom to explore inside the container of the project. I think I might like to use a format like this in future series. The structure gave me just enough of a boundary to hold the work while still allowing unexpected discoveries to emerge. That balance of focus and freedom proved to be deeply productive and creatively nourishing.
Then, I definitely want to publish this project in some kind of book form, most likely a PDF lookbook-style book. I’ve already started working on the layout and content of that. I plan to offer the electronic file freely and am investigating having a limited number of physical copies printed to offer – perhaps on Kickstarter and my Ko-Fi shop. Gathering the work this way feels like a natural extension of the residency’s theme: assembling fragments, symbols, and images into something whole.
I’m looking over the finished works from the latter part of the studio work and am going to choose at least three of the best plus a postcard print that I particularly like and plan to offer them as high-quality art prints in my shop. These pieces represent the most distilled expression of the project—visual artifacts that hold both memory and transformation.
I’m still considering using some of the ephemera from the project to create a very limited number of hand-crafted journals to offer as well. The roll-off papers are beautiful in their own right, and I’d love to send them into the world to spark someone else’s creativity. These by-products of the process—once just functional surfaces—have taken on a magic of their own.
Finally, as a personal keepsake, I plan to bind all of the actual pages and other artifacts of this project into a hand-bound studio book to keep. This tactile record is as important as the finished pieces—it holds the process, the mess, and the meaning that doesn’t show up in the final work.
This residency has been an amazing – and freeing – experience for me. I’ve learned a lot about my own process and preferences plus leaned into my own history and mark making meaning. Following the thread through memory, materials, and intuition has not only shaped this body of work, it’s reshaped how I understand my creative life.