Notes on an upcoming artist residency in South Africa
Hi! I hope you are well in your part of the world.
I’m off soon to explore and make art in East London. Not in grand old England, as much as I have enjoyed previous visits. And not in New England, where I’m from either.
I’ll be bringing Ma Kalulu Studio with me to a small village (Rainbow Village!) just outside of East London, South Africa at Driftwood Studios for a two-week artist’s residency in late December and early January 2023.
When I first moved to Malawi in 2019, I had grand plans of all the neighboring countries I was going to explore solo and with my family. Alas, the pandemic put most of our travel plans to rest for a few years. Now after having to cancel plane tickets in April of 2020, we will finally get to visit South Africa!
This residency is ideal for artists who want to travel with their partners/ spouses and children. So we are going as a family as part of our Christmas holidays!
The last artist residency I did was a 4-week stay in 2018 at TAKT Berlin in Germany when I was coming from Myanmar. I went with my two sons and two weeks later my husband Michael met up with us. It doesn’t hurt that he is German and we were planning on seeing our family there anyway.
Back then I was still making animations. The TAKT Residency Program is 1-3 months of artist critiques, life drawing, artist talks, individual mentoring, Berlin studio visits, and a curated group exhibition.
TAKT hosts a variety of artists looking for diversity, across all mediums, ranging from the emerging to the established. They promote a structure to focus, engage, and work.
If you’d like to see what I was working on and see the photos, please visit my blog post here.
As for what I will be making at Driftwood Studios in South Africa…
It will be a continuation of my new series of creative visualizations at the global and community level. The first of these was A Girl’s Education about all girls in the world having access to a high-quality education.
I’m currently working on a new drawing on environmental protection and sustainability. See it in progress here or just look at the photo at the top of this page. 🙂
Well, that’s all for now.
Best wishes,
Kristen
P.S. Come and see my newest work in progress. Follow me on Instagram. 🙂
