26 Jun 09
0

Off the Grid

by Rick

For three weeks in July I will be living in Morris Graves’ studio and painting up a storm. It’s my first artist residency, and I’m really looking forward to it . Morris Graves was a local artist who achieved world renown in the 1940’s for his mystical paintings of birds and flowers, and put Seattle on the art world map as a center for similar approaches to painting (the “Northwest School.”) When he died in 2001, the isolated Eden of house, studio and other buildings he had created around a forest lake high on a bluff near the Pacific Ocean near Eureka, California became the Morris Graves Foundation, managed by his last studio assistant. The artist residency is offered to one artist at a time, and absolutely no contact is allowed with outside world during a residency.

So, wow, that means no cell phone, no e-mail, no computer, and no visitors. Music is allowed there, but no photography. I’m taking my iPod Classic with tons of music on it (for example, over 50 operas!) and my entire collection of Tintin books. There’s a kitchenette and bedroom in the studio. The people who run the Foundation live nearby and will do everything for me while I’m there so all my time is spent making art. The setting and solitude will mean that real momentum can be part of the creative process. The muses of creative inspiration are fickle and can flit away at the slightest interruption or distraction, so the opportunity to work non-stop for twenty one days is like nothing I’ve ever had, and I’m hoping it will show up in my paintings. At the very least I’ll have a well-deserved rest!

Rick

Rick Hutter

Rick Hutter

Creative Coordinator

www.richardhutter.com


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