Corinne Bernard

September 28, 2018

Everyday I count how many days I have been here and how many days until I leave. Three months used to feel a long time, now it does not feel like enough.

Some days I get cabin fever. I realize there is other things to do in Roanoke but I feel like I can’t go to far from the studio. If I’m in the studio, I’m itching to leave or take a break. If I’m not in the studio, I’m thinking about the studio.

Of course I have really good days too. I am learning more about how I work, how I want to set up my practice and process. I make a lot of studies. I make watercolor studies that translate into flat acrylic painting and I make crayon drawings that translate to oil. Teaching myself to painting oils has been very frustrating but there are little victories. I have few finished paintings but many started. I like to bounce around from work to work and spend a lot of time looking. There are no time limit on my paintings and I am trying to approach them without rules.

Gabriel Cohen

September 28, 2018

Weeks 3 and 4 have slowed a bit. Which is probably for the best— Coming back from New York I passed through a considerable amount of rain, and assumed that the hurricane would be around to stay for a few days at least. The basement flooded which made using the wood shop difficult for a day or two. So I spent time reading and reflecting on the artwork I’d seen in NY and what I’d made in the first two weeks. Largely, I fiddled around with things. Towards latter half of the week I begun 3D modeling some old sketches as a way of working through formal ideas.

I quickly became reinvested in some ideas I had put on the back-burner, and when the basement had dried out I returned to work. I’ve gotten into a nice groove. I usually take mornings off to either rock climb, read, or run errands (I had an interesting trip to a local auto part scrap yard the other day). And then after lunch, or in some cases brunch, I work in my studio and the wood shop until eight or nine and then have a late dinner.

In addition, it feels like I’m beginning to get closer with the other residents—everyone’s guard is down a little bit I suppose. Last weekend we all went to a water hole in a state park nearby on one of the last hot days, and we spent last night singing karaoke until the bar closed. Roanoke is sweet. Part of me can’t believe its already been a month.