Skowhegan, as the website says, is a nine week summer residency for emerging visual artists. It was founded in 1946, three years after I was born. The town of Skowhegan is in the middle of Maine (if you don't count the northern part where the potatoes are).
Potato Harvest, Aroostook County, Maine. Image via Card Cow.
Every summer at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture different artists are in residence. Some stay the entire summer, others for a shorter period, some just to give a talk. Artists, historians and curators from all over the world come to Skowhegan to give crits and roast marshmallows by the lake with aspiring painters, sculptors, photographers, performancers, film and video makers, etc. It can be intense and the critiques can be harsh. Those that make it through the gauntlet of torture and abuse will become true artists and potential governors themselves.
I'm on the board of governors at Skowhegan, located on East Madison Road, Skowhegan, Maine. The school should actually be called East Madison School of Painting, Sculpture, Fresco, Film, Video, Performance and Electronic Media. All board members are artists. As a governor, I get to sit on a panel to review applications. This year I reviewed applications in film and video. Every year we notice certain trends. This year in film/video, there were an unusually high number of altered vintage films submitted. In photography, the emphasis was on photograms, a reviewer told me. This year, we liked what we saw. Last year, there were a lot of penises presented. Gross.
-- WW
Whoa, that's a punchline to a story. This post is akin to one of your videos in style with the oomph at the end.
Posted by: Jim | 03/18/2011 at 06:06 PM