Day Two as a Visiting Artist

What I am doing here?
 As a pilot project, I will clarify the direction of my artist practice and explore areas of interest for my next body of work through experimentation, interaction, trial and error. I hope that being based here that artists will visit to see how progress happens (or not!) and share ideas.   It will not be about a body of work or a product at the end – if that happens that is fine.  Importantly, it will allow me the space and time, the freedom to explore and expand my interests. At the end there will be an artist talk or discussion that may inspire others.
A constructive day in the studio - I have mapped out three ideas and have decided that I will try and pursue them until one of them falls off.
Where am I?
I am at ArtsPlace, in a beautiful historic building in downtown Annapolis Royal. As well as being the home of the Arts Council for the region, it is a vibrant, creative community space including three gallery areas on the ground floor. Annapolis Royal is a small and vibrant community in South West Nova Scotia.  It takes about an hour each way from my rural backwater on Digby Neck, on the Bay of Fundy to get here. Still, there is never any traffic jams (there are not enough cars) and the roads are good as long as it's not snowing, sleeting, hailing or freezing rain.

Day 2
This is now Day 2, and as a guinea pig of sorts, I am now in a blank white space above the gallery with a window view of the main street that goes through town. There are little bits of snow left in messy piles by the roadside. It's only 25 F out, too cold for a leisurely wander through town. Instead, I head to what might become my new favorite coffee place "The Sissiboo Roaster" with excellent fairtrade and organic coffee, and equally excellent almond croissants. It's an easy 10 minute walk from here and not enough to walk off the calories.
The gallery downstairs is bustling with activity as there is always an exhibition on. The next one starts in a week so there is lots of hanging of paintings to do. It's nice to have the busyness around me without being directly involved.

Art Stuff
I have been referring to the Fearless Creating book by Eric Maisel which is proving a useful starting point, especially as it relates to idea selection. I have at least three ideas and in a burst of early inspiration I have collected forsythia twigs from my garden to suspend in a mock gallery setting. So far so good. I like to live with what I am working on around me for a while. Being physically close to it helps absorb it on a subconscious level.
I also have been visiting the library at the gallery - poetry and installation work are the current inspirations.

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