NCC East 40 Artist Residency Begins

June 1 I began a 10-week artist residency on NCC’s East 40. I had every intention of blogging almost eery day, but here I am with so much going on it was hard to figure out where to start. So I’ll start with the East 40 itself. I’m not a selfie person, but the first day of the residency the weather was so glorious, and I wanted something to post about the residency so I broke down and did one. 
The East 40 is literally 40 acres on the East end of the Northampton Community College campus. It’s still off the grid-solar panels and propane tanks for power, rain catchment for water and um, a composting toilet. It’s part community garden, part nature preserve, part outdoor classroom, part pottery studio and part anything you can dream up-including an artist residency. Last year was the pilot year for the residency, thanks to professor Rachael Gorchov. I contacted her earlier in the year, she put me in touch with Kelly Allen who is in charge of the East 40 and he plugged me in to many resources at the college. This residency is still in its infancy, but I’m honored to be one of the pioneers, so to speak. The “product” of this residency won’t just be my artwork, but instructional materials that can be used by any NCC faculty and a community education class in natural dye and art materials. 
On day one, Kelly root-tilled a plot near the ceramics shed that is my home base so to speak for the residency so I could grow dye plants, woad in particular. I spent all day in the sun (with 100+ sun block on) pulling weeds out of the bed he just tilled. I only had time to plant half the bed with woad seeds. It’s been fun to watch the woad sprout and grow along with the residency. Yesterday I spent hours again pulling weeds, as I will seed most of the rest of the bed today.
So why am I planting woad for an artist residency, you may be wondering. Woad is one of the oldest and most color-fast blue dye. And it wasn’t just a dye-it was also used as a pigment, and I intend to use it both to dye fiber and to attempt to make a pigment. Pigments the solid, inert, and color-fast material that gives paint its color. So if I make a pigment, I can add oil for oil paint-or egg for egg tempera, gum arabic and other ingredients for pastel, gouache, watercolor etc. Of course, I’m going to use the art supplies once I make enough of them. I’ve done a whole lot more than plant woad so far, but this is enough for one post.