Writers & Books Visual Artist Residency

The working title is “Carving Care”, though that will change as the project develops. I am working with artist Annalisa Baron and Chris Fanning of Writers & Books. This is a community sculpture project in which we collect the cares and concerns, hopes and worries of community members in the form of personal stories. I will manifest these stories of care and concern into concrete form through the process of shaping and smoothing a pile of raw alabaster stones into intimate abstract sculptures. We will collect these personal accounts by putting out a call through Writers & Books for people to email their stories to me. The project will be exhibited in the atrium of WAB on the First Fridays of April, May, and June 2022. There will also be an online exhibition on WAB’s website. The atrium exhibition will include: the pile of original rocks slowly decreasing in size; a display of completed alabaster sculptures slowly increasing in number; a video of the carving process; a video of an interview discussion of the project; recordings of the stories playing through a speaker; and a placard containing information on the history of alabaster.

Funded by Rochester, NY (February 2022)