not an island

First may I quickly introduce myself. Hi, I am Erica, I arrived at Better Farm a few days ago and am happily settling in for my month-long artist residency here. I am a painter, and my own blog can be found at www.ericahauser.blogspot.com.

Sitting on a table in the yard at dusk, I'm happily anticipating the communal dinner that is done here several times a week. It's so nice to have dinner made for me and to gather 'round together to enjoy it and get to know the others, all creative, friendly, hands-on sorts of people. Eventually it'll be my turn to reciprocate. I did make apple-walnut-cranberry bread for the house today.

Yesterday afternoon I went on a ferry ride, with another artist resident and her 13-month-old, around nearby Alexandria Bay and the 1000 Islands. I saw enough of them to feel assured that there are indeed 1000. Just has to be one foot in diameter and capable of having a tree to be considered an island, and they ranged from tiny to grand: some had cabins, some had castles. We crossed briefly into Canadian waters. Just last month I was thisclose to Mexico during another residency in New Mexico (but was advised against popping in), and here I am dipping my toe into Canada.

We've had several bonfires so far, huddling sociably around the flames in the dark evenings, the sky overhead littered with stars in the style to which I have grown accustomed! How spoiled I've become in this respect. My paintings are coming along, though I must occasionally pause to evacuate from the barn an errant bee or dragonfly buzzing frantically inside the window.

I fearfully turned my computer on tonight and it seems okay but for a water 'stain'. Cautiously optimistic. I cannot overstate my relief.

I just got invited to exhibit my paintings at a temporary gallery in Cold Spring, back in the Hudson Valley, in July. More details to come. A friend and curator who supports my work is mounting several short-run shows in a small space on Main Street, and it'll be a nice opportunity to show some of the new pieces I've been doing, as well as less recent work.

Erica Hauser is a 2002 graduate of the School of Visual Arts in NYC with a BFA in Illustration. She also studied at Cornell University and the Art Students League of New York. She grew up on a half-dirt road by a reservoir in Brewster, NY and currently lives in Beacon, drawn after 7 years in the city by the Hudson Valley's abundance of natural beauty, creative inspiration and sense of community. For more information about Better Farm's betterArts residency program, click here.

Sun-Dried

By Joetta Maue

I have so enjoyed my time here at Better Farm and am happy with the amount of work I've gotten done, though I would have loved to have gotten more done of course. But I finished a red work, a text work, got a new red work well on its way, and four new drawings done.


And... I swam, I rode in a boat I saw baby birds, heard coyotes, met amazing people, took time to be with my son, saw incredible scenery and one of my favorite things... dried my laundry in the sun.

The process and idea of drying laundry in the sun is simply wonderful. I feel like in a strange way it is much like embroidery, slow, quiet, contemplative, and connects to so many women and lives of the past.


I loved seeing my clothes drying with t's and it would have been a complete family portrait if C's clothes were up there with us. Seeing their colors and textures flutter in the wind. T at my feet as I slowly hung each item one at a time, breathing in the air. Then gathering them up in a pile warm and clean. Simple things like this are what I miss out on in NYC. Simple things like this can be so lovely.

Progress

by Joetta Maue

Yesterday ended up being surprisingly productive. I made progress on the current red piece I am working on,

Met two new arrivals at the farm, made a communal dinner (with a little help from some folks) then headed out to the barn and got some new drawings done.

An image with two drawings of C and T overlapping. I am feeling good about this one.

The large wall and darkness is great. I am trying to get as many done as I can to take home with me. I have a new project in mind and wish that I had printed out those images so I could do those drawings now too - as they are big.

This is a large table cloth that I am doing multiple scenes from t's birth on. It is really about touch. In all of the drawings C is touching me in a very loving, supportive, and intimate way. It is a bit of an experiment in having little vignettes on the same piece of linen but I feel like for this piece it will work. I may end up adding more of the "aqua" work to connect the vignettes to the decorative work to. It will be interesting to see it evolve.

center image

my favorite drawing.

I am realizing how much I will miss this simple life. If C was here I could seriously stay all summer. No pressure, no hub bub. Long term I would get bored but it does remind me how I need to end up somewhere with a little more earth.

And I am totally surprised at how okay it has been to live communally. I thought it would be a struggle for me but it is pretty good.

Oh, the light here is inspiring the photographer in me.

In all truth Massachusetts- you are calling me home... if only it were as simple as saying that.
But being here does remind me of how easily out of balance NYC can make you and how for the long term of my life I am not so sure that is what I want.

Intern Jaci Introduces Herself

By Jaci Collins

I arrived at Better Farm in Redwood, NY early afternoon yesterday. The house (which is beautiful in itself!) is settled on a scenic lush 65-acres, nestled between area lakes. Any sane person would easily feel welcomed, at home and at ease. I came to Better Farm to get my hands dirty in hopes of walking away with some knowledge and experience in small-scale gardening/farming. What comes along with this is a chance to spend time with myself, and the wonderful people that also reside in the Better Farm house.

My first day as an intern consisted of me spending most of the morning and afternoon in the garden. I can’t yet tell you everything that is being grown, but I do know what I have planted: string beans and lentils! Aside from this, I did quite a bit of weeding and cleaning up in the garden. I also spent some time in the greenhouse straightening up, and pulling some weeds. Once I got a second wind after some yoga, I spent some time in one of the raised beds behind the house weeding.  I might transplant something’s into this bed tomorrow depending on what’s ready to be transplanted from the greenhouse.

It's a Better Farmer's Life for me!

This unfamiliar sense of forced relaxation has washed over over me here at Better Farm like a lush green wave. I came here to write, so I figured a blog introducing myself was the best place to start.

I'm 29, a dog owner, avid reader, and currently bleeding from my knee thanks to a chainsaw. The betterArts residency at Better Farm appealed to me on a variety of levels, mostly for the opportunity to get away from city life and concentrate on words instead of traffic for a month. I plan on starting a book (Oprah, get ready) about some of my time in the military.

The sense of community here on the Farm is palpable. Everyone is welcoming and friendly, especially little 1-year-old Tesla. He can't talk yet, so it's easy to blame him for all of the food i throw on the floor and the crying in the middle of the night. My dog Percy follows Tesla around all day, as she has found him a generous food-giver. The cast of characters here is as varied as it is interesting. People help with all aspects of farm life, from gardening to meal preparation to drinking beers. The latter is quite the heavy burden that weighs on all of our shoulders equally, mainly because we have a mini-fridge full of brews after the Memorial Day party last Saturday.

The next 27 days should be very interesting for me, as I plan on bothering the other resident artists enough to learn the fundamentals of their respective crafts. I came here to learn as well as create, so this will be fun no matter what.

Yours in farming,

Matthew Lane

Introducing Better Farm Intern Jaclyn Collins

Jackie (at right) and visiting artist Matthew Lane begin putting together a solar panel kit for one of Better Farm's outbuildings.

Jaclyn Collins, Intern, June 2011
BS, sustainability, Arizona State University
Associate of Arts, Kent State University
Jaclyn is a fresh-faced graduate from Arizona State University's prestigious sustainability program. She's specifically interested in sustainable farming and ecosystems, and plans to earn a master's degree in agriculture from Oregon State University. Jaclyn's extensive research into food systems and subsequent environmental degradation, food insecurity, and obesity has fueled her efforts and interests in local food production, distribution, consumption, composting systems, and waste.

We'll let her put it in her own words:

My Bachelor’s Degree in Sustainability has focused mainly on Sustainable Ecosystems. With this focus I have studied socio-economic systems and their direct impact on ecological systems. With this knowledge, I applied solutions to lessening these impacts through various means such as group and individual projects. In my junior year at ASU, I studied Sustainable Food and Farms, which focused on the complex drivers of our current food system and its effects ranging from environmental degradation, food insecurity, obesity, and more. In this class we focused on local food production, processing, distribution, consumption and waste. Individually, I focused on local food production in which I studied a local Phoenix Community Garden and its ability to provide the surrounding area with a percentage of food security and community strengthening. As a senior, I am enrolled in a workshop that focuses on composting, with the goal of creating a campus-wide program for ASU. Individually I am researching composting technologies and various case studies that have worked for universities in the past. This workshop is heavily based on researching and incorporating sustainability principles into our final recommendations to ASU and various stakeholders. This is only a brief glimpse into my experience at the School of Sustainability. I have been immersed into wide ranging sustainability courses, challenges and solutions. My experience at the School of Sustainability has been life changing and empowering. I have developed a passion for sustainability and have made many lifestyle changes in light of this. I wish to take all the knowledge that I have learned out into the world and apply it in a real-world setting. My passion is sustainable food and farming and I hope to one day have my own organic farm and start urban farms in cities across the U.S.

Yup, this is going to be a good June. Here's what Jaci had to say about her entrance at the Farm:

I arrived at Better Farm in Redwood, NY early afternoon yesterday. The house (which is beautiful in itself!) is settled on a scenic lush 65-acres, nestled between area lakes. Any sane person would easily feel welcomed, at home and at ease. I came to Better Farm to get my hands dirty in hopes of walking away with some knowledge and experience in small-scale gardening/farming. What comes along with this is a chance to spend time with myself, and the wonderful people that also reside in the Better Farm house.

My first day as an intern consisted of me spending most of the morning and afternoon in the garden. I can’t yet tell you everything that is being grown, but I do know what I have planted: string beans and lentils! Aside from this, I did quite a bit of weeding and cleaning up in the garden. I also spent some time in the greenhouse straightening up, and pulling some weeds. Once I got a second wind after some yoga, I spent some time in one of the raised beds behind the house weeding.  I might transplant something’s into this bed tomorrow depending on what’s ready to be transplanted from the greenhouse.

Yesterday...

by Joetta Maue

I finished a text piece....


and started a new piece.

And today I will sit on the porch as long as the babe naps and stitch, stitch, stitch away.
And I am feeling having my solo show done for late July is actually going to happen now.
Woo.

Tradition

by Joetta Maue

Better Farm in the past.

What I most love about this place is its history and tradition. In a way, my work is steeped in tradition and history; as are the images and text I work from. My pieces are a living memory of my own life. There is a gentleman here from the old-school beginning days of the farm as a hippie commune and it makes me realize how it is such a treasure to have a place that so many people have passed through and had meaningful life memories occur at and now it has a new generation that continues this tradition in a new way.

Better Farm in the 70's

It, in ways, reminds me of the barn we go to every 4th of July. It has been in the same couple's hands for something like 18 years and every year they have a party on the 4th and it is always a privilege to hear about how life, the place, the world has changed and always wonderful to see this group of people that have grown apart in life come back and connect and how now a new generation is breathing life into it again.

The 4th of July party at our friends Barn in Liberty, NY

I grew up going to my grandpa's camp on the Ohio River and now that I think about it it too filled this same purpose. He was a generation above the "hippies" so it had a very different vibe. But he had the place a very long time, as long as I could remember, and would have parties where "old timers" would come together and share their memories of a life that is past and then share the life they had in the present. Folks that have grown into different income brackets, moved to different States, had dramatically different lives. Coming back and connecting. The "camp" got sold when I was in my teens, as he could no longer maintain it and no one wanted to take it on, but it was such a treasure of my childhood. And I am jealous that my sister, who was older at the time, got a few treasures, lamps, tables, etc from it as a way to hold onto it. I was to young to think of doing that.

I feel like my generation will to have these stories and the traditions and I have always wanted to a be a person that helps to create them with annual get together's, parties, etc, but I have realized that in NYC I have gotten away from this - as space is short and life is hectic but I am now, being on this property that has so many stories and so much love, remembering how valuable that effort to create tradition in my own life and my son's life is.

Now if only I had a gorgeous piece of property to start doing it on. I guess I will have to improvise.

Read about the founder of Better Farm here. For more information about Better Farm's betterArts residency program, click here.

'First Fridays' at Arts on the Square

Being Inspired and Soaking it In

by Joetta Maue

DIY Stencils

 

What You'll Need:
Piece of paper or cardboard
X-Acto knife or blade for cutting stencil
Transparency
Spray paint or other durable paint and foam brush
Medium to adhere stencil to (we used coozies)

Step-by-Step Directions:
1. Draw your design or logo onto a piece of paper or cardboard.

2. With a pen or marker, trace the design onto your transparency.

3. Cut the design out with your blade.

4. Use duct tape to adhere the stencil to whatever object you're going to decorate (stencil adhesive also works).

5. Carefully spraypaint the object.
6. Allow to dry and remove the stencil.

In the Art Barn

by Joetta Maue

This weekend Better Arts had their annual Memorial Day celebration and they filled the art barn with work so I hung a few pieces and shared a work in process...


I dragged the above piece, 8 months, because I am feeling it is not done and think perhaps text needs to be added. I am just not sure what so I keep hoping that if I stare and it long enough it will speak to me. Still staring.


I have hung the pink piece, with my boys, straight across as it is in the picture and diagonal, so the point on the square is at the top. Still not sure which way I prefer.


I am very happy with this piece and it is mostly done. I am still thiking on if I want to fill the hair in more and add more contrast or leave it more like a sketch. What do you think?

Originally posted on Joetta's blog.

Opposite.

By Joetta Maue

My room, where I spent most of the day with sad baby drenched in sunlight.

Yesterday the sun was bright, the air was warm, and the day was long... And I do not mean "long" in a good way. The little babes was SO not happy due to what ended up being a pretty unpleasantly high fever. Poor babe, poor mama, and poor folks also in the house not related to mama and babe.

I did some gardening therapy and planted some cucumber. That was good.

Took a walk to the birdhouse to peek in on the adorable little baby birds. That was good.

And otherwise was sad and stressed with my sad little man.

So for any of you that read this blog and think being a mama and an artist is easy, I am one to tell you no, no, no. But it ain't easy being a mama no matter what: hard work sometimes.

Somehow amongst all that I did get some work done. Progress made.

But after a fitless night, awakening for a drive at 5:45 a.m., and a tired mama crash out on the bed, the fever broke and my sweet boy returned. We will see. Fingers crossed, as this place has the potential to be such a great inspiration for my work.

A door from an installation done last year out in the field.

Today it is wet and rainy, cool and gray, the baby is asleep, my work is in front of me. So all in all the complete opposite of yesterday and I am just fine with that.

Originally posted on Joetta Maue's blog. For more information about the betterArts residency program at Better Farm, click here.