After another four-flight trip home from Oregon, I spent a day at home and then got in the car to drive 10 hours to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts near Lynchburg. I was soooooo tired when I got here, but when one of these fabulous places offers you a residency, you go when they say to go. So it has taken me a few days to settle in and get rested, but I am at work in the studio and thoroughly enjoying it here. It's warmer, hooray! Not spring by any means and it's sometimes quite cold, but there have been warm, sunny afternoons that are lovely (and no snow...). VCCA is close to the Blue Ridge Mountains, which I can just see from the hills on the property. The center is on a large farm, with cattle and horses, but the large barn complex has been turned into studios for artists, writers, and composers. This is the largest residency that I've been to so far with about 20 residents. Everyone has a room in the Fellows Residence—a bit like a dormitory, but with big living room and library spaces. And best of all, they cook for you! Breakfast and dinner are in the residence and they bring lunch out to the barn so that you will not interrupt your studio work too much. What a life. The food is quite good, too.
My studio space is large and comfortable, with a big window, skylight and lots of light. I am already fully ensconced there, working on the photo-encaustic pieces that I started in Wyoming. Yesterday I went to a poetry reading in the art gallery at Sweetbriar College, which is just across the road, and tomorrow will go back to the campus to walk and explore.
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| Fellows' Residence |
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| my room |
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| studio barn |
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| my studio on the first day |
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| lots of sculpture on the grounds... |
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| I'm guessing this was a corn crib, now a writer's studio, cute... |
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| A walk in the Virginia woods. |
