I have been in Ojai, CA, working at my residency for exactly one week today at the Beatrice Wood Center. What is a residency? What happens? What do you do? I have been asked these questions by many people, so I am going to blog my process on a weekly basis in hopes of helping others understand what happens during a residency and the validity in getting out of our comfort zones and challenging ourselves. This is my experience and other residencies may be different.

Phew!  Then, it got serious, real quick… My first week was hard, very hard!  No, none of this had to do with the Beatrice Wood Center but had everything to do with the fact that I had no concept of quiet and working solely with clay.  I missed Rex (my husband), my family, friends, and Alaska! I missed my comfort zone! My comfort zone became apocalyptic and all that I knew was gone. 

I played music to try and drown out the quiet. I began working with clay on projects that I had previously been creating to try and find someplace to ground myself to do the work that I had carved out the time to come and do. After five days in the studio from about 9–5 pm, I finally realized that I needed to give myself oxygen if I hoped to make it through this internship. I took Saturday afternoon to bond with Beatrice Wood’s extensive library and seek inspiration. I also spent time in the museum, gallery, and shop acquainting myself with my new space for the next three weeks.

There are two walls of art books that Beatrice Wood collected, plus a center island with books on both sides!!!! This is an art library!!!