how I set up a 4 day retreat in my own house

be your own artist-in-residence ;)

I’ve told you all about my dream project “guest room residency”, right? It is what it sounds like, an artist residency in the guest room of our house (the pipe dream is a separate ADU space to house family, friends, and artists-in-residence). Guest Room Residency is mostly still a dream, but I’ve been starting to put out feelers to close friends who might be willing to try it out and help us improve what we offer for future residents. My hope is that by 2025 we’ve hosted one or two residents and we have a greater sense of how to comfortably host future residents, and maybe a sign for the door (and maybe a website? dream big!).

This spring has been a bit of a challenge for me, I’ve been feeling run down and desperate for some uninterrupted studio time. I find that a typical weekend is not enough time, I spend that time tending to relationships/the house/my body. By the time it’s over, I have to mentally prepare for another workweek (and my workweeks have been unusually busy since the start of 2024 :/) and I realize I haven’t tended my creative practice nearly enough.

At first, I thought I would book a couple of nights at a nearby hotel- somewhere “away” but not too far, while Josh spent his days at a multi-day ceramics workshop nearby. That became overly complicated (how would I get around, what would I eat if I was on foot? etc), and the financial cost seemed too high for the outcome I was seeking (more on this below). So instead, I became our first Guest Room Resident (this is sort of a joke, but is it?). I spent May 3-6 (thursday evening through monday evening, taking Fri & Mon off work¹) acting as if I were an artist-in-residence in my own home. “Why go through such mental gymnastics to make art?”, you may be asking. Simply, I am not making the art I want to be making, and I figured trying something new might help me get unstuck.

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How we prepared for my residency:
1. I cleaned the guest room & changed the sheets after our last guest left.
2. Josh & I discussed the chores that needed to be done in advance and then did the chores in advance (typically we clean, grocery shop & meal prep on the weekend). Josh supported me by taking on the lion’s share of this, both mentally and physically.
3. I sifted through a mess of materials in my studio to give myself the best chance of being able to find and access materials and tools.
4. We bought several frozen meals from a service a friend recommended so that I wouldn’t have to think about how to feed myself during the residency (getting sufficient nutrition into my system is truthfully an ongoing difficulty for me, and one I was hoping to avoid while attempting the residency! This was also facilitated by two important purchases we made last year: a deep freezer and a microwave - true game changers in my life).
5. I worked with my therapist to identify what ways I wanted to feel (grounded, spacious), and we practiced somatic exercises I could invoke throughout the residency whenever I needed a reminder.
6. I updated my libby holds to facilitate e-reading in the evenings.

Some supportive habits/ways to structure time:
1. Log off work (and log OUT of every work thing, since my only functional computer is my work one) on Thursday, and cover the monitor with a piece of cloth.
2. Field trips/artist dates (art shows, farmers market, seeing friends)
3. Water as a signifier of transition. Hot showers, cold dips. Long, tall glasses.
4. No phone after 8pm
5. Airplane mode when it feels supportive and not restrictive (maybe turn off the internet?²). Download a handful of episodes of a show I’m enjoying.

Residency “rules” (there are no rules):
1. listen to your body
2. take up space

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How I actually spent the time:

• I made the same breakfast every day, and I made a smoothie. I left this smoothie in the blender in the fridge & re-whirred it to drink throughout the day (see rule no.2 above). This took the guesswork out of getting sufficient nutrition into my body to spend hours working.

• I spent time with friends and family - I called my mom, I facetimed with my sisters & nephew. I went to the farmers’ market, got ice cream with clark, and went with ruby, dan, and rohman to elende’s art opening. I drank tea & stretched with renn. I went to the river with sam. I watched my 15-year-old neighbor’s ultimate frisbee game. I attended a Resilient Greenfield meeting. I called these outings “field trips” and framing them in this way felt generous and exciting - taking time away from the studio was supportive, not harmful.

• I stayed in contact with folks through my phone - I asked questions of my sewing friends and sent pictures of progress. Those affirming replies and answers to my questions kept me humming along with more confidence.

• I made modifications when I noticed I was in pain. A yoga mat under my knee while I cut on the ground, a yoga block to rest my bum on, and sewing slower than I think I should be. I thought a lot about working through pain, when “pushing through” is warranted, and when I can back off and be gentler with myself.

• I finished reading A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (wah! I want to exist in these Becky Chambers books for as long as possible). If anyone has recs for similar books, I am all ears.

• I watched season 3 of Starstruck - not my fav show, but a dutiful companion while I worked on quilting the quilt I’ve been collaborating on with my mom and rested in bed.

a new-to-us section of the river that Sam & I found and frolicked in like little forest faeries

what I made:

• my…. wedding dress?!? i spent most of my studio time drafting the pattern for my wedding dress & then sewing it up! I shared more about this here³.

  

  the dress in progress. pictured here is the full bodice and the silk organza lining

• a wearable muslin of my wedding dress’ bodice (which I intend to wear under a silk organza dress that is next on my to-make list).

  

  silk duiponi bra top that will hopefully go under the silk organza dress I’m making next

• I experimented with painting on silk noil - one day I want to paint stripes onto silk fabric and stretch it over a lampshade, so this was the first step toward practicing for that eventual goal.

The long story short here is that Guest Room Residency was the highlight of my spring - I can’t believe how just four short days gave me such a needed boost. I only wish I could have had a bit longer to soak it all up.

Tell me, would you ever try this out? Being an artist-in-your-own-residence? ;)

1. I receive paid time off through my employer, which makes the calculus for spending my time in this way simpler.

2. Turning off the internet can be a powerful tool to change how I spend my time, but I also wanted to leave this time open to research, so I left this open-ended.

3. Behind the paywall for privacy’s sake <3