Millay Arts, Austerlitz, NY, 2022

MILLAY ARTS, Berkshires, NY, 2022.

Millay Arts in a residency for visual artists, musicians and writers in the property of the late poet Edna St Vincent Millay in the Berkshires, in upstate NY.  Millay is an idyllic place surrounded by woods, where black bears and deer roam freely in a national park next to the property.  

My studio was set in a place where I could permanently hear the sounds of wildlife nearby. While I was there, I worked on a series of paintings that were based on photographs I took of Edna Millay´s Pond. I was fascinated by her story, and it seemed to be one of the spots that concentrated the highest amount of her energy. I observed and photographed the aquatic plants and frogs living there, and then transferred their abstract patterns onto paper and canvas by tracing them. This procedure was done in a meditative and almost mechanical way. At this stage the work became intuitive, but somehow, I felt that I was transferring Edna´s vigor into my drawings.

I also worked on a large drawing that emerged from the imprint of a piece of bark found in the Poetry Trail, where Edna and her family are buried, and where one can walk and read some of her poems. On one of my many daily morning runs I selected the piece and carried it back to the studio. It had beautiful lines that revealed the passage of time, and it smelled like the woods. I made an imprint with it on two large pieces of paper, and worked up from there, again intuitively.  The drawing somehow came out bold, simple and strategically set.

My stay at Millay was not only inspirational but also magnificent in terms of the connections I made with other residents. Our daily dinner ritual at six thirty on the dot was the beginning of lovely friendships. The cohort was exceptionally diverse in terms of backgrounds and age, and somehow that made it even more appealing. Korea, Spain, Albania, Washington, Brooklyn, and Chile is not a bad combination.

I especially connected with Ani, a writer from Albania, whose story of immigration to the US had certain coincidences with mine. We went running together every morning surrounded by gorgeous woods, shared breakfast, and talked endlessly about life. I learned that a writer´s journey has many coincidences with that of a painter, and that work processes are similar. Interdisciplinary residencies are certainly a powerful way of elevating motivation and are eye opening in terms of mirroring work systems.

Ximena Velasco
Millay Arts, July 2022.