i am writing to ask you to consider offering me - or someone like me - an artist’s residency, consisting of room and perhaps board for a fixed period of time.
perhaps you know of an artist for which such an opportunity would be a welcome surprise, or a potential host for which such an opportunity would be a welcome adventure.
opening up one’s home is not for the faint of heart. i can say for the recipient of such hospitality there can be no greater gift. for the host, the benefits are less obvious, but under favorable conditions will certainly emerge.
in my experience, the benefits to the host have been as diverse as the group of people i have had the good fortune to be “in residence” with. the beauty, and perhaps the thrill, of such an arrangement is that the benefits are never known in advance, and, on occasion, not even in hindsight.
i have slept on floors, in beds, and on sofas. i have eaten out of cupboards, refrigerators, dined at my host’s table, or eaten elsewhere as a guest of others. at my host’s behest, i have stayed for days, for weeks, and sometimes for months. i have accepted meager alms with which i could afford daily entry at the local coffee house.
my point is that a residency is amenable to a wide variety of arrangements, with suitability to and consideration of the host of paramount concern.
someone once described me as an artist whose medium is the energy of life. i liked that description.
i have a special affinity for people who feel some discomfort with their life and the world they live in, and are unwilling or unable to ignore that discomfort. they seek to understand it, and if possible, to remedy it. they may not be sure where to start or how to go about it. they are, however, determined in their quest.
or, having perhaps discovered a better fitting, more hospitable and healthier way of being in the world, they are developing a life and a way of living in which they and others can flourish.
i was and am such a person.
shall we talk?
with kind regards and love always, hippie lou
