Reflection on the Residency Experience

Reflections on My Residency: The Work, the Landscape, and the Balance of Solitude & Community

Spending six weeks at the top of a mountain in Tuscany was an experience I thought I had prepared for. I had my materials, my goals, and a sense of what I wanted to create. But nothing quite prepared me for just how physically demanding and emotionally expansive the experience would be.

The Work: A Physical Challenge

One of the most striking realizations during my time at the residency was just how demanding the physical labor of working with clay at a large scale truly is. I spent anywhere from eight to ten hours a day throwing clay, and as someone who has been working in ceramics for years, I thought I understood the toll it could take. But working at this intensity, day after day, pushing the scale of my work, was something else entirely. My body felt it—my hands, my back, my entire being was consumed in the labor. It was challenging, but it also deepened my connection to my process in a way I hadn’t expected.

The Landscape: A Surprise Influence

I anticipated that the residency would offer time, space, and focus. What I didn’t anticipate was how profoundly the natural environment would affect me. Working at the top of a mountain, surrounded by nothing but the vast Tuscan landscape, was both exhilarating and overwhelming. The colors, the changing light, the silence broken only by the wind or the distant sounds of nature—all of it became part of the work. I found myself responding to the landscape in ways that surprised me, allowing its presence to influence the forms and textures I was creating.

The view from Vetulonia

Balancing Community & Solitude

Perhaps the most unexpected challenge was the duality of community and solitude. The residency was intensely communal—working alongside other artists, engaging in deep conversations, supporting one another’s work—yet at the end of the day, I returned to complete solitude. Living alone for six weeks, completely removed from my normal life, was something I thought I would embrace easily. Instead, I found myself constantly navigating the push and pull between the need for connection and the need for deep personal space. It was a challenge, but ultimately, it became one of the most rewarding aspects of the experience.

See the Work in-Person

The pieces I created during this residency reflect everything I experienced—the physical intensity, the inspiration from the landscape, and the emotional depth of solitude and community. I’m excited to share these works in an upcoming exhibit at Gallery Bibliothèque. This will be a chance to see how this time in Tuscany shaped my work and, for those interested, an opportunity to purchase select pieces.

Stop by on March 22nd from 10a-4p with a brief lecture by Jamie and myself at 12pm.