on residency…
| we are nothing without our connections, and i am so thanful for those that i have that support me - i recently finished a short residency with the oregon fringe festival as one of their honorarium recepients - this process was both humbling and gratifying seeing as my ideas and the music and research i have invested my time in has value and fascination for people, but at the same time , in order to make my voice heard i need to apply myself further and broaden my reach and the scope of my visions - before diving into it, i want to quickly say a thank you to my colleagues and friends at southern oregon university and the oregon fringe festival - not only would i have fallen flat on my face without them, but what’s more is that they believed so much in what i try to do that they fiercely advocate and make time for my art - i humbly thank them for their love |
| my performance of a program entitled “gesture” has finally debuted since its hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic - what was originally intended as a student project for the 2020 oregon fringe festival has been touched up and given new life this year - i am very happy to see this program come to life but even more happy to present it as a professional artist - going forward i can continue to refine and present it as a concert program for various theatre, music, and arts residencies and concert series’ - what felt like an incredible opportunity became a tremendous learning experience, as i would come to realize |
| these posts are in the interest of research and reflection - i hope to maintain that amount of transparency while also posting links and articles of value and depth when applicable - in reflection of the residency, i have been grappling with thoughts of inadequecy and relevance - the attendance of both events, were rather low compared to what i had envisioned - though i had no illusions of a packed house of even expectations of a half-filled concert space… but four people in attendance the first evening stung a little - as someone who has committed his life thus far to the pursuit and recognition of art and the thoughts surrounding that art, i don’t deny or pretend that what i do isn’t niche - it is avant-garde, it is fringe, it is weird and in some ways irrelevant to the greater themes and problems of today - but four people— after months of effort, a radio interview, some (albeit light) word of mouth work and 4 months worth of festival marketing pr— four people hurts - the following day. more than tripled those numbers, which is good and progress, but it showed how truly relevant what i do is to people |
| one could quote factor after variable for why someone didn’t show up, or couldn’t, but i am not so much interest in that conversation - i am fueled by this concept of relevance and the thought that what i do simply doesn’t matter - i want to matter and have my work be a topic of discussion, further i want to have those discussions with people and talk about the concepts and ideas i and others bring to the table - when there are four people in the audience, there are only four chances for conversation, and even fewer people partake in that - like i said, i know that what i do is of the least concern for people right now, given the state of the world my little corner of art is insignificant - but i won’t settle for that - i have to ask myself “how can i shift my practice to include more people into the discussion” and “what will make what i’m doing here, valuable and worthwhile to experience - i continue as always in the pursuit of interdisciplinary artistic collaboration, but it is also time to find ways and platforms where i can fascilitate the discussions too |