PLACE, PEOPLE and TIME
DRAWING DEEPLY
2023

The Group Residency DRAWING DEEPLY was a gathering of international participants and facilitators that took place in June 2023 in Collemacchia, in Italy’s Molise region, where The Museum of Loss and Renewal holds its residency programmes.

DRAWING DEEPLY was devised by The Museum of Loss and Renewal with invited partner, artist and academic Danica Maier. It was offered for creative practitioners working in art, animation, architecture, communication industries, dance, design, fashion, film, theatre, performance, writing etc. and for those who have a strong interest in drawing as an area of practice. Applications from other fields where drawing is used as a means to develop, document, explore, explain, interrogate and plan such as archaeology, architecture, engineering, geography, mathematics, medicine and sciences were also welcomed.

See below for residents’ profiles.

APPROACH

The Group Residency was designed to be supportive. The partially-structured and hands-on programme enabled residents to develop their skills and understanding of drawing across a range of approaches and technologies. The residency experience stimulated new ways of thinking and experimentation through production, research, co-learning and presentation.

With a focus on co-learning and knowledge exchange, residents had multiple opportunities to learn from each other: sharing work in progress happened throughout the residency, stimulating conversation, exchange and peer support.

Guided sessions such as ‘Visual Dialogue’, ‘Slow Looking’ and ‘Listening Environment’ focused on attention to detail. An underlying theme of ‘Micro-Macro’ connected the group to the residency location and to the wider world, in consideration of what one brings from a place and what is subsequently left in a place.

Residents worked collectively and individually, developing their own practices. Value was given to the individual knowledge and experience of each resident, exploring the act of drawing as a fundamental means to visualise, experience, understand, analyse, document, explain, record and translate the worlds we inhabit.

In addition to the work made by each individual resident the group jointly produced the folded publication Dialogue, 2023.

Dialogue, publication produced by participants during the one week Drawing Deeply Group Residency, 2023

AIM

Drawing is a core activity in the work of creative practitioners, as an exploratory tool that guides visual discovery. The necessity to understand the world through visual means is increasingly acute, as images surpass the boundaries of language and enhance communications in an increasingly globalised world.

The aim of DRAWING DEEPLY was to activate and affirm the value of drawing and enable the visualisation and development of perceptions and ideas in a supportive and stimulating environment in which residents develop their skills and knowledge of drawing. Residents were guided through various approaches to drawing, from historical to contemporary, analogue to digital.

An important part of the Group Residency was developing a new international peer group for residents.

The Museum of Loss and Renewal published a final collective digital outcome to convey publicly the activities and work undertaken by residents and facilitators during the Group Residency. For a sense of what the week full of inspiration, conviviality and criticality was like, see the DRAWING DEEPLY online publication.

PARTICIPANTS
PLACE, PEOPLE AND TIME: DRAWING DEEPLY 2023

Lee Cutter

Dumfries House residency (2022)

I am an artist, workshop facilitator, and independent exhibitions & events producer based between Bordeaux, France and London, UK.

My interests are with social change, overlooked communities, and the role that art can play in giving those on the fringes of society hope, and a voice.

I regularly collaborate in creative projects with charities that engage with people residing in prisons and other secure settings across the UK. I often produce workshops and hold mentoring sessions in collaboration with prisons, hospitals and Universities, in person and online.

https://www.leecutter.com/

Shelley Davis

White Lies

I am a freelance graphic designer based in London, UK and also a freelance artist facilitator at
ActionSpace, a London studio environment for learning disabled artists.

As a designer, I find working closely with independent companies extremely rewarding and enjoy the to and fro of honest communication in the search for a perfect graphic solution.

At ActionSpace, encouraging and supporting the day-to-day achievements of each artist is always our goal and their independent success is hugely inspirational. The aim is to have all artists accepted into the mainstream without labels or condescension and to build on the recognition some have already achieved in major galleries.

However, I feel an increasing urge to re-discover and explore my own artistic language, find out what that looks like and allow it to develop. The opportunity to begin that exploration is what lured me to The Museum of Loss and Renewal.

Ellen Dubreuil

Saint Frankie: Rose Boy Dreaming (2022), mixed media collage, 5 x 4 inches

I am an artist and teacher living in Somerville, MA, USA. I was raised in Massachusetts and California. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York.

My art and writing are multidisciplinary and run the gamut from cartooning and children’s illustration to mixed media collage and sculpture, as well as visual and prose essays and poetry.

My research interests include child development and psychology, the anthropology of childhood and play, the history and anthropology of toys and other representational objects, material culture and memory, and the public domain. I currently live in Massachusetts and teaches in Cambridge at Lesley University Art + Design, USA.

@thelastdraw

Harriet Forster

Sea Song, from the Moon Dance series (2023), Multimedia drawing, 145×70 cm

I am a Glasgow-based artist who practices with the mediums of photography, drawing, and film. My work investigates the boundaries of the human and non-human, questioning our relationship with land and water. I am interested in belonging with place across time and how this informs our moment of crisis. 

I received a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design from The Royal Drawing School (2021), undertook Exchange at Emily Carr University (2022) and am currently pursuing BA(Hons) in Fine Art at The Glasgow School of Art. My work has been exhibited both in the UK and Canada and I have completed a residency with Descover Artists in Hydra, Greece (2022).

@harrietforster_art 

Viktoria Mladenovski

Editorial Illustration for the horoscope double spread in the 12th issue (2023) of the
(German) Jacobin Magazin

I am a Macedonian-Luxembourgish illustrator and artist based in Berlin and Luxembourg. Having completed my Masters degree in Modern English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, my practice is influenced by queer, feminist, gothic and surrealist literature.

I work as an illustrator with a focus on queer-ing identities and intersectional feminism for international clients, e.g. Missy Magazine, Berliner Zeitung, Jacobin, and Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.

I explore (childhood) memory and (dis)connection from identity by using oil pastels, clay, embroidery and video. My fascination with sea creatures, chess, and dreams can be seen in my playfully escapist art practice. I work as a workshop instructor for still life and creativity workshops.

Recent exhibitions include The Skinny Print Exhibition at Sierra Metro (Edinburgh 2023),Mousse au Chocolat at Göttlich (Berlin 2022), Open Days Exhibition at 1535 CreativeHub (Luxembourg 2020) and I am part of an exhibition at the Reuter-Bausch Galerie (Luxembourg 2023).

https://www.viktoriamladenovski.com/

Rose Montgomery-Whicher

Tulip seen over time (2023) ink and gesso, 12 x 20 cm

Drawing is at the heart of my work as an artist, educator and author. Working mostly from direct observation, I draw things, people and places as a way of slowing and preserving fleeting moments of specific experience.

I have taught students of all ages in gallery, school, community and university settings in Canada and the UK. These include the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Canada, the University of London and Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge. I obtained a BFA from Queen’s University, and later a MA (Concordia) and a PhD (Alberta) in Art Education.

I am the author of ‘The Phenomenology of Observation Drawing: Reflections on an Enduring Practice’ (Routledge, 2022).

I live in Toronto with my husband, two young adult children, and a dog named Tapioca.

@rose.montgomery.whicher

Adeline Newman

Interrupted Body (2023)

I am an interdisciplinary artist, immersive experience designer, educator, and researcher currently based in Michigan, USA.

My research focuses are immersive, experiential pedagogy and sensory storytelling. I am investigating how we learn through all our senses, and am especially interested in haptics/tactility, proxemics, motion, and peripheral vision.

I have a BFA in Experimental Animation from CalArts (2012), and have designed and performed as a VJ and Video Designer in Estonia, including Tallinn Music Week, Estonian Music Days, Stalker Festival, and in the US at venues including REDCAT and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

As an Imagineer (2014-2021), I worked as a Video Designer/VFX Designer with a focus on projection mapping and technical video integration for Disney Theme Park attractions in the US, Hong Kong, and Japan. 

I am a MFA2 at Michigan State University and teach Drawing, and Color and Design.

@skezhbooook (sketchbook and drawings)
@brutgothartbabe (figurative drawings)

Ingrid Tait

Pondveil scarf: wool slub fusion

I was brought up and still live in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. Whilst studying at RCA, London I developed a new ‘fabric fusion’ approach by adapting an industrial felting technique. This produced unique effects by bonding fabric and stitch work onto woven wool fabrics.

In 1990 I founded the company Tait & Style to explore the possibilities of this technique (and others, including knitting) and sold in worldwide outlets including Takishamaya and Barneys in New York, Liberty, Selfridges, and The Conran Shop in London, and Tomorrowland, and Beams in Tokyo.
I collaborated with many other designers on developing fabric for their collections, including John Rocha, Paul Smith, and Givenchy.

Since 2008 I have produced only occasional fabric fusion works – including several in partnership with Tracy Mackenna & Edwin Janssen – having focussed instead on teaching, running textile courses, and above all operating my own retail business in Orkney.