I wrote a guest post for JetsetterGypsy about the Pine and Birch Ranch, the location where we stayed for my Biophilia Residency. You can check it out here: http://jetsettergypsy.com/an-autumn-escape-to-the-pine-and-birch-ranch/
All posts by Kristi
Realize: Biophilia – Activities – Thursday
I’m skipping over Wednesday because most of Wednesday I was sick. I stayed at the ranch for the afternoon, took a bath and a couple of naps. By dinner I was feeling a lot better. Later that evening we had an artist talk from a local artist who scans moths and makes prints from them and I think I went to bed relatively early.
Thursday
I felt better on Thursday to continue the activities. We went on a hike through the property and gathered mushrooms to make spore prints later. You leave the mushrooms on a piece of bark or parchment and the mushrooms drop their spores leaving a print. Then you can fixate the print onto the paper with hairspray. Later we inoculated grain to grow bio luminescent mushrooms.
The spore print once it is done
Mushrooms laying on top of the paper
The supplies to inoculate grain
Then several weeks later, the grain starts to turn into mycelium!
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I guess this is goodbye
A poem is below about a person that I had to recently say goodbye to…
#3 The two moments I’ll never forget in my life are…
The third journaling prompt that Spirituality and Health mag suggests to write about are the two moments in your life that you’ll never forget, write them down so they are memorable.
I decided to do these prompts in relation to my career thus far.
1st Memory – In/Finite Earth
The first memory of my career thus far is obviously winning the In/Finite Earth competition. I never win at anything at all, and didn’t think that my photograms was considered as fine art. I guess before this competition I really didn’t know the value that my artwork had. This competition was a serious turning point in my career as I began to realize the significance of my work and the importance it has in the artwork. My professor that I created this work with in college told me that it had the huge possibility of becoming a legacy. This guy was the kind of professor who saw everything, so when I showed him my process and the work I was creating, it really changed his world I think as well.
2nd Memory – Being Hired (and then fired) at Minuteman Press New England
This is something I’ll never forget. I had been searching for a job for three years previously before being hired at Minuteman Press. I had studied graphic design for almost 8 years at the time I was hired. When I was finally hired, my co-workers then (before Minuteman) said I was glowing. I had just gone through a really rough time and it made me question my life as a whole – so entering this new job made me leave the things I was dealing with behind and to move onto a better phase in my life. I felt like I was prepared, but what I wasn’t prepared for was being denied – almost – accommodations for my mental disability. My boss didn’t care that I had such a thing and wasn’t willing to work with me. He also didn’t really understand that the mistakes/errors I was making was due to my mental disability and having my mind actually not being able to see those errors before production. I am now not really in the best place in my life because of that and I don’t really see graphic design as a career path right now. Which I am having a hard time coming to terms with because I had been on this path for almost 10 years now. To leave that dream behind makes me feel like a failure.
– See more at: http://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/30-journaling-prompts-self-discovery#sthash.y6quQYHI.OO0C3ofT.dpuf
Biophilia – Activities – Tuesday
Tuesday was our second hike, and the first day when I started to feel ill. We hiked through the same park again but with a herpetologist to show us the frogs and reptiles we found in the park. We found a salamander, frogs and a beaver that happened to be on the same path. I got some really nice photos of these animals!! We didn’t do much, but finished the rest of our artist talks that we didn’t get to on Sunday and chilled out on Tuesday night. This night I also started to feel ill and had to eventually sleep down stairs in the common room because my sore throat was so close to my gag reflex that it made me throw up whenever I tried to lay down and I didn’t want to disturb anyone else. I felt awful for disturbing anyone, but it was hard not to. I ended up staying home at the ranch the following afternoon because the activity that they were going to was an hour away and I didn’t feel comfortable enough to sit in a car that long and not throw up.
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30 Journaling Prompts: #1 – My Favorite Way to Spend the Day
As nerdy as it may sound, actually my favorite way to spend a week day is working on my artwork/brand. By this I mean finding calls for entries, opportunities, and writing applications. The thought of my work getting accepted into some of these just sound tantalizing! I recently just applied to some really cool travel opportunities for this winter and next year. With my artwork being really unique and diverse, I have a pretty good chance at these, but they are competitive.
I’ve also been working on my indiegogo campaign and using twitter for marketing. It’s been cool to meet other users who are into promoting your work. I recently have been working with one individual, and he’s definitely got a hand on twitter and I feel pretty blessed to have his help.
I’m hooked on opportunity and with the acceptance rate my artwork has, it’s easy to get caught up in finding all these opportunities. It’s how I found most of the experiences that I’ve been able to have. The internet is a great resource for emerging individuals in any career – not necessarily the arts. Experience is everything, and just being one opportunity has happened, doesn’t mean it can happen again, you just have to put the effort into it.
My last thing has been publications. In some fields of academia to have your work published is extremely important. It doesn’t matter that someone doesn’t know it, it means that your work has been published! And you never know who may read those publications. Someone who may not necessarily go to a gallery, may read your publication and be interested in your work. They are a great venue for exhibition – but can be kinda tricky regarding copyright. Just be careful.
See more prompts: here
Biophilia – Activities – Monday
Monday
The following day we had our first hike. Before this hike we drove to a chairlift in the same park and got a look at the foliage. This was the first time of that I got lost! The group van had to be taken into Ottawa to be fixed so we couldn’t drive as a group. We were already running a bit late so we didn’t get to meetup with the arborist, which was a bit of a bummer, but we used the time during the hike to find plant material for the kirlian workshop that night!
Yes that’s right! I was able to do a kirlian workshop with the group. It was really fun to do because everyone was excited to do the workshop and was very enthusiastic about finding plant matter. I also was able to work with plants that I wouldn’t have otherwise had a chance to back home.
This day was very long and tiring at 1am I was very glad to be asleep!
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30 Journaling Prompts for Self-Discovery
I recently ran across a wonderful post on journalism prompts on Spirituality and Health Magazine the post below was originally written by Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S on the Magazine. I think it is a wonderful idea and I’m curious about it and tempted to write one prompt each week.
Biophilia – Activities – Sunday
There was an abundant of activities throughout the week that made every day an adventure. It wasn’t too much but everything did run a bit longer than expected which made it hard for everything to be done that day also made for very long days. I had been suffering from a low period of energy and was really nervous that I wouldn’t have the energy to do the hikes scheduled. But I think a lot of the low energy had to be from my grief from Minuteman and that this trip was exactly what I needed to be able to bring myself to back to an OK state. As I said on the last night, it was really healing to be welcomed into such an open and welcoming group after being kicked out from a place where your heart was still very much there…
Sunday
Our week started off in the National Gallery cafe and having lunch with the group. We introduced ourselves and got a bit of an orientation of the week. Afterwards, we drove to the hostel where the rest of the group stayed – I stayed with a host from airbnb because being a psychic and medium and the hostel claiming to be haunted I wouldn’t have gotten much sleep! After picking up everyone’s gear we drove to the ranch.
Once we got there we had a chance to explore the property and take photos and find things for our artworks. We then had our artist talks and dinner in Wakefield at Cafe Chez Eric. We ended up staying at the restaurant a bit longer because we had a flat tire! We had a really interesting discussion that night about 3D printing and I got some interesting inspiration for my photography that maybe I could do one of these days.
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Plenilune Magazine
I have been waiting to post this, but I am very excited to have two never before published/exhibited works and my paper on Kirlian Photography be published in this up and coming magazine. I never thought that I’d have writing published, but they were looking for articles and decided to send my paper over! I’m very excited about this because this next issue will also include works by some of my favorite creatives that I admire! The issue won’t be out until December.
A.I.R Gallery
So my piece “Bluebells” was just totally featured on the A.I.R Gallery website last night! http://airgallery.org/a-i-r-gallerys-11th-biennial-exhibition/
Reflections: You Don’t Care…
Below are just some thoughts regarding something in my life. Feel free to scroll on if it doesn’t interest you. 🙂