Day Twenty-One – Studio Tours and Writer Presentations

NOTE: I know this post is late, and I am now back in Connecticut playing catch up. I will complete my daily journal on the residency over the next few days.

Sunday arrived and we knew there was quite a day ahead of us. This was the culmination of all the work we had been doing for three weeks, and we were all going to enjoy the end result of what both the writers and artists created. In short, today is what all of us were working for.

After breakfast, we began our studio tours in the village in what is called “The Yellow House.” It is one of the properties that the chateau owns in the village, and it exists primarily as an artist studio. There is also a lounge for artists to relax and step out of their creative space if they wish to. The chateau owns a number of properties in the village–not simply the studios, but a couple of galleries, the art store, and a few artist apartments. We started with the work on display at the Yellow House before making out way to the Stables–horse stables that have been converted into artist studios.

After that we made our way back to the chateau, for the third floor is entirely comprised on artist’s studios. I have to tell you that the work the visual artists created was phenomenal. All the work was different in approach and technique, a variety of mediums were explored, and a great deal of care was committed to each display. I was impressed and inspired by the quality of the work. Some of my favorite samples are below:

After the studio tours, we had lunch and then the writers’ presentations. There were twelve of us reading–some read stories, poems, and excerpts from novels. Much of it I was familiar with from the Writers’ Circles, but it was still great to hear the work that had gone into improving and completing the writings. We also had the reading of my play, “The Great Tidy,” with the help of Maddy, Tilly and Sommer. The three of them did a fantastic job, and the audience seemed to really enjoy themselves. I was incredibly pleased with the result.

The final writers presentation was from Ambrose, who shared his collaborative project. Early on in the residency, he requested a paragraph from all participants on the topic of “Beauty in the Mundane.” He assembled the entries into one document, and we read it round-robin style–the only caveat being we could not read our own paragraph. It was wonderful to hear all of the contributions, and to hear them all read out by different voices was a totally appropriate way to experience the project.

After the presentations, we did the photo on the steps of the chateau, which is a residency tradition. This was followed by a champagne celebration (I have eaten so much bread and cheese this month!) and then a celebratory dinner together. There was a number of additional socializing and conviviality both in the chateau and down at the stables. We had a little over a day left of the residency, but we all knew this was essentially the end. It was a celebration, yes, but I think most of us were sorry to see it end. I know I was.