Hello from Bogliasco,
Here is a view of the sunrise from my room. Yes, friends and neighbors, Bogliasco is the creme de la creme of residencies. I wake up in the morning to breakfast while my room is cleaned and bed made. Truly heaven. Then up up up a path to my studio. The studio is small — but has a dance floor and is perfect for me. So far I have been busy re-editing the video of Ouette – new footage from 40’s noir movies and creepy shutters and shades in the studio . Suspense only needs a good sound track.
After a morning work I look forward to a lunch of — a pasta, fresh fresh cheese, salad or other delectable vegetable and fruit. Wine and espresso is abundant…..
More work or a side trip along the path that follows the sea.
My husband, Scott, has joined me for a week. While I work — he paints. Bogliasco has given him his own private work room and veranda looking out at — you guessed it — the sea — The light during the day glistens and his paintings are delightfully quirky and colorful.
We stay at Villa Orbiana, which we share with another couple — Nicholas Bartlett and Bogliasco Fellow, 
Dorota Mitcyh. Bogliasco is one of the few residencies that allows partners to join the Fellows.
Dorota is a visual artist. She explores and creates new work by incorporating drawings and video as a continuation of a starting process. Using an array of ephemeral materials, she explores the possibilities of working on a figuration that evolves into abstraction and becomes another figuration. By changing the formal aspects of an image, a different image as well as meaning appears. She will film the process to make a series of videos where in effect the viewer becomes the witness of that change.
Dorota is from Poland but has dual citizenship in Australia. She has been to many residencies over the last three years including MacDowell. She met Nick at a residency in Nebraska. Nick does sculpture. Following Bogliasco they will be at Roswell Artist-In-Residence in New Mexico for one year.
The days finish with a formal dress-up dinner. Amazing food. Mussels, pesto, tortellini with a grated walnut cream sauce, tiramisu, squid in light red sauce with hand picked mushrooms and potato slices, red and yellow roasted peppers with anchovies, stewed rabbit, cold veal with a tuna mayonnaise sauce — I could go on and on — oh yes — that lovely light yellow cake with pears….
Stay tuned in … till next Friday… Ciao. Karen
Maho Ogawa, photo by Elyse Mertz
“I am honored to have performed at the Performance Mix 37…PMF plays a very inspiring, influential, and unique role in redefining the role of theater and performance art in society. I hope we continue to think about how this festival means so much not only for dance fans/ students, but for art lovers and the general public.”
– Maho Ogawa
New Dance Alliance
182 Duane Street
New York, NY 10013
(646) 510-1824
All venues are wheelchair accessible.
Rachel Schroeder
You lucky dog!!
xo,
R.
Richard Olson
Are you still there in Italy? Sorry it’s taken me so long to respond, but you are obviously having too good a time to worry about me or anybody back here in New York, where it’s 65 degrees this morning. The only treat for me tonight will be watching the Yankees whip the fillies. Lately i’ve been typing up my journal from 1968, a pivotal year for me. It’s amazing how much each entry reveals about me. Meanwhile, i’m waiting for composer Brian Schober to finish scoring the music for the opera we’re working on. I wrote the libretto and will direct it next year.
Anyway, i would be interested in how being in a completely different environment affects your creative process. Does it inspire you to make something different than you might have done back home?
Karen
Richard, residencies are a must for me, because I have focused time to make creative work a priority. Even if I am not in the studio — I have time for a walk or a long shower — and surprising ideas emerge. When I first began Ouette in April 2008 at Wassard Elea in Achea, Italy — I was inspired to begin working with projections. After 3 weeks in Achea, I had 7 minutes of material of projections, movement and soundtrack. I have since created footage at Earthdance, White Oak, Silo, and oddly enough — a cruise that I took with my mother to Bermuda. I would never have such unique imagery if it weren’t for these travels. Now Ouette is 29 minutes and I have continued to show it at different stages on different stages including Dixon Place and Green Space (New York City) and Studio 303 (Montreal). Future performances will include the Rhubarb Festival at Buddies at Bad Times Theatre (Toronto), February 24-28 and Dixon Place, May 20.