A couple weeks ago, Emma and I took a break from the usual day at the office to go to Wassaic, NY to visit the artists at the Wassaic Project Residency. Emma will be travelling back to Wassaic this Saturday April 28th with a group of Recession Art fans. If you are interested in joining the trip, please contact her at emma@recessionartshows.com.

Wassaic is a little town in upstate New York. The project is an artist-run sustainable, multidisciplinary arts organization that focuses on community engagement and facilitates artists and participants to exhibit, discuss, and connect with art, each other, the unique site, and the surrounding area. For artists accepted, the Wassaic Project offers a rustic, peaceful, and quiet atmosphere for them to do nothing but create. Not only is it beautiful, it provides a meditative escape for the artist, and without the usual distractions of their daily life, they are able to pour all their time and energy into creating art. It had me wondering if the residency left the artists feeling exhausted afterwards, knowing that expending all that mental energy can be tiresome! I asked them if they felt the process was rejuvenating or exhausting (each artist spends about 2 weeks to up to 4 months at Wassaic), and they all told me that it was a little bit of both.

Emma and I spent the whole day visiting each artist’s studio and getting a comprehensive explanation of everything they are working on. Walking from room to room, it felt like we were walking into each artist’s mind, seeing their different processes and work spaces. I can’t speak highly enough of all these artists and the level of talent we saw that day. Each artist is different from the next, but by working in close quarters, they’ve developed a synergy amongst each other, exchanging insights and inspirations. I did my best to capture the studio environment, and the pictures below provide glimpses into the space and the projects that everyone is working on.

These photos show the studios of the following Wassaic Project Residences:

Lindsay Packer

Paloma Crousillat

Danielle Scruggs

Tatiana Istomina

Aliya Bonar

Alison Wilder

Ashley May

Megan Berk

-Ivy Challis