RESIDENT SPOTLIGHT 2013: KAREN OSTROM

 

Karen Ostrom is a participant in EFA's 2013 Residency for Arts Workers as Artists. In addition to her art practice, Karen is the Assistant Registrar of Collections at the International Center for Photography

We have already told you about the residents' professional lives here, so we decided to get a little more personal. To learn a little more about them in and outside of the studio we have asked our residents to respond to questions. Here are Karen's answers...

PS: What are you working on now? 

KO: I’m making collages as a kind of sketching exercise. I’m also making short videos that reflect as a personal documentary of some of my travels, both locally and internationally. These are not unlike the collages in that they are loosely placed together. So in that way they also act as a kind of exercise or a way of broadening my work and thinking outside the control and slowness of the animation projects. 

PS: What is your experience so far? 

KO: I’ve been noticing the benefits of mixing up my regular routine and how it can have a positive effect on my working habits and attitude towards what I am working on. I likely wouldn’t be working on collages or making these videos even though I want to, I just keep putting it on the backburner. So it’s allowing me be able focus my attention there and not feel like I should be working on something larger. It’s helping me pay attention to some of the important smaller projects that help inform the larger ones.   

PS: Tips on staying focused? 

KO: Lots of quality sleep and exercise; I swim. Daily meditation practice is essential. 

PS: Preferred mode of transportation? 

KO: Airplane. 

PS: What are your creative inspirations? 

KO: Anything that suspends me from the awareness of my surroundings. Travel, dreams, unusual or surreal narratives, anything that implies a linear line but in itself may not be linear.

PS: If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be? 

KO: Richard Serra – I think he would absolutely hate my work and it would be interesting to see how he would handle the situation. I think I could learn a lot if he were cooperative. 

PS: If you could have personally witnessed any event in history, what would you want to have seen? 

KO: Time in Pompeii long enough to get a sense of the city before it was buried in lava and to set up narratives like the famous Dog of Pompeii to be speculated upon centuries later. And then to witness the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (from a distance of course).

PS: What was your first thought when you woke up this morning? 

KO: I don’t know what day it is. (but no panic)

Check out Karen's website for more about her and her work

RESIDENT SPOTLIGHT 2013: ELLEN UZANE SCHNEIDERMAN

Ellen Uzane Schneiderman is a participant in EFA's 2013 Residency for Arts Workers as Artists. In addition to her art practice, Ellen oversees special events and individual giving at Henry Street Settlement, a social service and arts organization on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

We have already told you about the residents' professional lives here, so we decided to get a little more personal. To learn a little more about them in and outside of the studio we have asked our residents to respond to questions. Here are Ellen's answers...

PS: What are you working on now?

ES: I am experimenting with some new processes and approaches, including learning to make my own paper for the first time. I have been adding paint directly into the paper pulp and layering many colored pulps on top of each other to create a kind of archived painting directly in the paper. After the paper dries,I am excavating parts of the surface in order to reveal and explore these under layers. It is a kind of subverted archeological process where I both create the dig site and engage in the digging. There is much to discover here.  

PS: What is your experience so far?

ES: It has been an exciting past two weeks. I feel energized in the new space and my fellow residents and I am inspired to think about my work differently.

PS: Tips on staying focused?

ES: Love what you do.

PS: Preferred mode of transportation?

ES: Walking.

PS: What is your favorite NYC spot?

ES: The Meeting Room at PS1 followed by tacos in Corona Queens. 

PS: If you could have personally witnessed any event in history, what would you want to have seen?

ES: The building of Stonehenge.  

Check out Ellen's website for more about her and her work

RESIDENT SPOTLIGHT 2013: CAROLYN SICKLES

 

Carolyn Sickles is a participant in EFA's 2013 Residency for Arts Workers as Artists. In addition to her art practice, Carolyn is currently the Director of StudioLab at the Abrons Arts Center in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. 

We have already told you about the residents' professional lives here, so we decided to get a little more personal. To learn a little more about them in and outside of the studio we have asked our residents to respond to questions. Here are Carolyn's answers...

PS: What are you working on now?

CS: The majority of my studio time been spent stocking up on drop spindle yarn. These skeins will be dyed and woven into the first of a series of breaching right whale tapestries.  Each image is intended to capture the mimicry of landscape. I have become fascinated with inhabitant responses that echo a specific place, even for a fleeting moment. I have also started the foundation panels for a felted terrain triptych and experimented with small textural panels. Each has a unique improvisational pattern marking identification and the possibilities of communication. 

PS: What is your experience so far?

CS: This has been such a treasured platform for producing new work and processing my thoughts. Each day spent at the residency feels like a rekindling. 

PS: If a celebrity were to play you in a movie, who would it be?

CS: Total bare your soul kind of question. Being a diehard evening soap fan I would insist on auditioning all of my favorite small screen actresses. Alexis Bledel, Katie Holmes, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Rachel Bilson are top candidates. There is no shame in how I decompress after a long day. 

PS: Tips on staying focused. 

CS: Hydration. Delicious snacks. Keeping a schedule. 

PS: If you COULDN’T work in the arts/be an artist, what kind of work would you do?

CS: Easiest question thus far. I would totally become a food curator and open an entire museum dedicated to the practice of making/sharing/archiving meals. 

PS: What are your creative inspirations?

CS: I have been finding inspiration in the company of my musician/composer studiomate. His improvisational approach has helped loosen up the rigidity I usually associated with my more technical process. 

PS: What is your favorite NYC spot?

CS: Lately I keep finding myself drawn to the Brooklyn coastline. It constantly surprises me how much water surrounds us yet most of the residents resist contact. 

PS: If you could have personally witnessed any event in history, what would you want to have seen?

CS: I would of loved to observe Eva Hesse at work in her New York studio. She was a pioneer in her material approach and stripped down sculptural forms. 

PS: What was your first thought when you woke up this morning? 

CS: Butter + Toast 

Check out Carolyn's website for more about her and her work

RESIDENT SPOTLIGHT 2013: RACHEL STEINBERG

Rachel Vera Steinberg is a participant in EFA's 2013 Residency for Arts Workers as Artists. In addition to her art practice, Rachel is the organizer and curator of Videorover at NURTUREart Gallery, where she is also the Assistant Director. She is an active member and co-organizer of Trade School New York. She also works as the Assistant Registrar at Museum of Arts and Design.

We have already told you about the residents' professional lives here, so we decided to get a little more personal. To learn a little more about them in and outside of the studio we have asked our residents to respond to questions. Here are Rachel's answers...

PS: What are you working on now?

RS: I've been working very schizophrenically - experimenting with some simple book projects, exploring the objects in the studio and working on a video project.

PS: What is your experience so far?

RS: It has been very strange to have so much time to myself, but great for allowing all of the ideas that have been in the back of my mind to come forward. I am experimenting with working and thinking more impulsively instead of overly planning projects.

PS: If a celebrity were to play you in a movie, who would it be?

RS: Definitely Whoopi Goldberg.

PS: Tips on staying focused?

RS: Kill the internet!

PS: If you COULDN’T work in the arts/be an artist, what kind of work would you do?

RS: This is a really impulsive answer, but I've been very inspired recently by the work of this group called UnLocal, who are volunteer lawyers for immigrant rights -- I would want to explore social activism through law. 

PS: If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?

RS: Yvonne Rainier, Sarah Sze, Cher or Vaginal Davis. 

PS: What is your favorite NYC spot?

RS:This is a really hard one... I like the Max Neuhaus sound installation in Times Square a lot.. 

PS: If you could have personally witnessed any event in history, what would you want to have seen?

RS: Does this have to be a specific event? I would have liked to see what my mom was like as a child. I will have to think about this question more.

PS: What was your first thought when you woke up this morning? 

RS: Glad that dream is over.

Welcome Dinner and Discussion

On Friday, August 2nd, 2013, the 2013-14 Artists as Art Workers residents gatheredd for an evening of food, wine and discussion. Residents Karen Osrom, Rachel Vera Steinberg, Hatuey Ramos-Fermin, Ellen Uzane Schneiderman, Carolyn Sickles, and Todd Shalom gathered with EFA Project Space Director, Michelle Levy to share their experience working as an arts worker and finding little time to pursue their creative and artistic practice. 

The residents enjoyed a getting to know you dinner as well as presented 10 minute presentations about previous work they have produced and the vision they have for their year long residency at EFA Project Space. All the residents have different approaches to their practice, each one works with different mediums, and each one has a different process for creating. Stayed tuned for more highlights on the process of each resident's work!