Chateau d’Orquevaux

I wrote this while on the plane to Paris. If you catch my IG stories you may have seen that I am staying in a small village’ in rural France for an artist residency. I will be spending an entire month living in a Chateau in the French countryside with a group of artists doing the thing I never seem to have the time to do - experiment with new mediums of art. As Black Crow Studio grows each year, I strive to develop new ideas, keep my clients happy, while making sure the business is running smoothly. What often gets pushed aside is time to experiment artistically and develop my ideas. 

So that is my plan - to experiment - to try to develop an idea I’ve been wanting to work on for the last year. It is a totally different idea than I have ever done before and in all honesty I have no idea if it will even work out, but I think this is the place and opportunity to go for it. 

The residency program at Chateaux d’Orquevaux offers the opportunity for me to disconnect from the stress of daily life and pursue my creative calling. I look forward to having the space to be creative and release myself from the hectic pace of my daily life. I relish the isolation and disconnection and the idea of living in the moment and taking in every drop of the experience, to store it deep in my soul and bring it back with me. And I yearn to be part of the diverse community of artists that the residency offers. 

I am working on ideas for a new collection that harkens back to my fashion design background. When I was in college, studying fashion design and textile design, I won a scholarship to study for a year at L’ecole de le Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. It was an incredible and very difficult experience. The fact that this residency is coming up at a time when I am looking back at how to intertwine that experience in my current work was very fitting. I will be back in a country that set my soul on fire, using what I learned to breathe life into the creative process. I have never been more excited and more terrified about a collection. Will I ever be able to create something that matches (let alone exceeds) the vision of it I see in my mind??

One thing I have learned over the years is that I can trust my creativity and know that it will deliver for me if I give it the space it needs to grow and develop. I trust the process and all I have to do is get out of my own way - that can be the hard part.

I hope to return feeling rested, recharged and energized, ready to start a new, strong series of work form which my new collection will grow.

More photos below - click on the images to scroll through!