Happy New Year!

For the last two years, I have spent the start of each year at an artist residency in America on a residential fellowship. This year, I'll be at home. Counting my blessings and looking forward to a great 2010 for us all.

But one of the insights from 2009 that has stuck with me came from another Fellow I met at VCCA this time last year. She started growing a hyacinth in her studio to remind her that - in the artistic process - while nothing much might seem to be happening on the surface ...



... there was nevertheless a lot of solid root growing going on under water ...



This feels like the best image of 2009 for me. It might have seemed less overtly SPARKLY than other years for me but I'm hoping the hard work of solid root-growing, nourishing and composting that has been going on almost invisibly at times promises well for the future. I can't tell you how excited I am about some of the projects I've got lined up for next year. Well, actually I seriously can't tell you about some at the moment, but I'm sure I'll be spilling the beans about them very very loudly as things get confirmed!



And here are some of my BEST OFs... because I've enjoyed these lists on other blogs...

BEST AUTHOR

Diane Ackerman wrote two of the books I've enjoyed the most this year. A Natural History of the Senses and The Zookeepers Wife.

BEST BLOG

Has to be a toss up between White Hot truth by Danielle Le Porte, and Advanced Style. Both always make me feel alive in very different ways.

BEST FILM

2009 was a year of documentaries for me. Exciting, mind-opening and often funny and heartbreaking - sometimes both. I particularly loved Helvetica and Grey Gardens.

BEST MUSIC

Has to be The Antlers, although I'm still attached to last years Blitzen Trapper so you can have that too.





BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT

Did you really need to ask?



HAPPY NEW YEAR AND A JOY FILLED 2010 TO EVERYONE...

VCCA Fellowship

I've written lots on this blog about my time at VCCA, and I've just had this email from them which may be of interest to some readers. You'd still have to pay for airfares etc, but it seems like a great opportunity. The website is here:

The VCCA is accepting applications for the Goldfarb Family Fellowship for Nonfiction Writers. This is a fully funded two-week residency where a nonfiction writer may concentrate solely on his or her creative work. As with all residencies at the VCCA, writers will be provided a private bedroom, separate studio, and three prepared meals a day, in the company of 23 visual artists, composers and other writers. The postmark deadline is May 15. The application process is the same as the regular VCCA application process, but we must have work samples, so applicants may not submit a re-application. You may obtain an application by visiting our web site.


Please forward this email to
friends and colleagues who might
be interested in applying for this
opportunity.


You may contact me at 434-946-7236 or e-mail me with any
questions.

Sincerely,

Craig Pleasants
Program Director

Driving

She records all the places they don’t go to on the car. The weekend he got food-poisoning she painted a beach scene on the roof. A garden appeared on the passenger door after his foreign conference. He says he doesn’t feel guilty, but he doesn’t drive so much these days.

For she's a jolly good fellow...

Now that Autumn is here, I'm getting more and more excited about my forthcoming fellowship at VCCA. In fact, I'll let you in on a secret. Not a day goes by that I don't go and ogle at the website, particularly at the Accepted Fellows page. I know this paragraph practically by heart:

You'll find a working environment far from the distractions of every day life. With three meals prepared for you every day, you'll experience large blocks of time where you can concentrate on your work. Many artists find the solitude and the privacy afforded at the VCCA liberating, and produce some of their best work here. Others are inspired by their colleagues with whom they share breakfast and dinners in a common dining hall.

There's something there worth repeating .... with three meals prepared for you every day...

Oh, and the large blocks of time where you can concentrate on your work bit too, of course.

I'm not really going there to eat, oh no! I have a 'secret project' to work on. I really can't wait to get my teeth into it.

And to make it all even more delicious, I'm going to travel from New York to Virginia by train too. This is an adventure, especially for a Fen girl. I think I might be finally growing up. There are even days I can cope with a hill or two. After all, I am about to be a fellow (or have I mentioned that already!)