residency plans
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Sketchbook open in front of July 2025 calendar and stack of canning books
Today’s studio time started by meeting with Caitlin, SNAP’s director, about my greater residency plans. We talked about my concept: telling the story of local food/ local food security from picking through processing and on to canning and eating it. I went on to draw more faces of people who garden, wild harvest, jam, and can, bringing my near total up to twenty two. It’s tricky to talk about plans right now, knowing that they’ll likely change along the way. But really, I’d like to screen print the faces and cut them to 3” circles. These would most likely be used in a sort of hanging mobile way along with the jar canning lids, which I have been collecting for a few years. Telling the production story will likely happen in a long linocut carving. Maybe. Caitlin reminded me that this is meant to be a springboard, and that it would best serve me to work at techniques and procedures or processes that I can only do in the studio. Things like trimming and assembling can be done from home.
Meanwhile, I think of the Laena McCarthy quote that I read in her Jam On last week, about goods that one cans themselves:
“It’s like anarchy in a jar, and the revolution starts in your mouth”
It was a bit of a tired yet steady day, with the tiniest of catnaps with my head on the table just after lunch. Tomorrow: more sketches, and starting to figure out the best shapes to try to tell the canning story.