Introducing Spring Residents and their work, presenting current and past projects with projected image and video. Arrive early beginning 5:30pm for refreshments and to meet the artists and writer. Presentations begin at 6:00pm.
JOSEPHINE BIRDSELL – essay - Columbus, Ohio
WALKER WALLS TARVER – painting - Montclair, New Jersey
MARÍA VALENZUELA – textile, embroidery - Santiago, Chile
JOSEPHINE BIRDSELL
Columbus, Ohio – Writing Studio
Josephine Birdsall is a queer, nonbinary artist and essayist in recovery. Their mixed media artwork and personal essays deal with issues of queer and feminine liberation, life and sobriety in subculture, and rest and recovery in the face of trauma. They aim to dismantle recovery stigma, de-glorify addiction, and speak truth to power.
During their residency, Josephine will continue work on a collection of personal essays that examines punk subculture and substance-use recovery, using a lyrical blend of research and personal narrative. The essay collection will ultimately culminate in currently untitled novel-length memoir.
MARÍA VALENZUELA
Santiago, Chile – 3rd Floor Studio
María Valenzuela’s practice consists of a study of drawing and tracing in space that dialogues with the languages of dance, performance, experimental video, photography, and embroidery. With a BA (sculpture focus) from the University of Chile, she studied photography at the Pontifical Catholic University and the ICP New York. She also studied Visual Anthropology at the University of Barcelona and received her Masters in Documentary Creation at the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. Throughout her career, she has participated in video art exhibitions, performances, and projects that combined the audiovisual world with intangible oral heritage in Chile and Spain. After seven years in Spain, María proposed a new technique of hand embroidery on different supports in Chile, participating in national and international competitions and exhibitions.
In Corsicana, María will continue a series of large-format hand embroideries on canvas that she has been developing in recent years. These textile pieces will be produced from an artistic research process inspired by nature and local territory from a critical and ecological perspective. www.instagram.com/majevalenz
WALKER WALLS TARVER
Montclair, New Jersey – 2nd Floor Studio
Painter Walker Walls Tarver traces her lineage through a matrilinear legacy. She is inspired by her paternal grandmother, Tinka Tarver, a painter, fiber artist, dancer, sculptor, and metalsmith as well as a disciple of Jungian theory, a remarkable cook, a housewife turned rebel, and a lifelong Texan. As such, the figure of her grandmother has always guided Walker’s studio practice.
While in Corsicana, Walker plans to use the opportunity to get closer to her grandmother’s legacy, taking day trips to San Antonio to retrieve boxes of Tinka Tarver’s dream journals. She will utilize the space to make large-scale paintings informed by her engagement with her grandmother’s stories and the Jungian imagery within. www.walkerwallstarver.com