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In 2018, I applied to the Gibraltar Point Artscape Artist Residency program and was accepted to the residency along with my friend and fellow artist, Karen Wynne Mackay. Both of us were so inspired by the experience of immersing ourselves in our art practices for a concentrated time, we applied again in 2019. Both of us were again accepted and traveled to Toronto Island in May along with three other artist friends from various art disciplines. Then along came 2020 with great plans to add two additional artists to the group and again spend an awesome week on Toronto Island. BUT... the world changed in 2020 and we had to postpone our artist residency until 2021. Even though the best laid plans were upended the group committed themselves to creative activities during that week in May and furthered our hunts for inspiration by meeting on Zoom to see each other and talk about what we had done that week. Since then we are known as the 7 Works Collective and we still meet regularly on Zoom and are beginning to host exhibitions together. In 2021, with extreme covid restrictions, we managed to attend the residency with our extended group. With covid still raging in 2022 we chose to skip that year. But in 2023, with renewed spirits and supplies in hand, we hopped the train this time and had an amazingly beautiful week of fabulous weather and renewed inspirations. Our schedules usually began with solo walks to the beach, returning to the shared kitchen for breakfast, then off to our studios for some heads down creation. Periodically through the day, if a studio door was open we'd pop in for a chat and coffee, then back to the work at hand until lunch, followed by more work occasionally punctuated by a spin on our vintage rental bikes. At the end of the day, we would gather and pick an island restaurant for our evening meal after which we might finish up a studio idea then gather in one studio to chat about the day's work. Always interesting and always inspiring. Comments are closed.
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