Julia O’Connell reflects on her Hatching Residency
In early November I was fortunate to be a Nest resident. I submitted an application previously and had sprawled out a myriad of ideas for exploration given the chance to have two whole weeks of headspace. I was excited and nervous.
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Marianne White reflects on her Talking Birds Residency
Scroll down for text only version of Marianne’s blog.
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Corinne and Daisy reflect on their Remote Nest Residency.
I’m Corinne a disabled artist. This year marks my sixth year of spending almost every day confined to this same 2 by 1.5 metre space, my bed.
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Rachel Bunce reflects on her Hatching residency
After spending 10 days on a relaxed retreat-style Swedish residency, I almost had some ideas. I was given space to play with the tools that I normally use to earn money and create with others. It was brilliant, fun and terrifying (in equal measure) to have total creative freedom without a brief! Chatting with Janet and realising I wanted to take one of my almost-ideas further gave me the impetus to apply for a Nest Residency. I’m so glad I did, and not just for my creativity and idea-forming but for my sense of community, my physical and my mental health.
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Po-Shin Chao reflects on her Hatching Residency
As an artist, for my residency my project focussed heavily on exploring and experimenting with ways I could reflect and display my own identity and internal struggles through the world of fish and marine life. An aspect I wanted to include was my cultural heritage; with the use of fish surrounding Taiwan included in my artwork, art styles and choosing fish that symbolized particular meanings. Many of the fish I wanted to paint were heavily inspired by hierarchies and societal roles in everyday life. I worked primarily in paints and inks related to traditional artworks such as gouache and calligraphy ink and spent the full ten days at the nest, popping in and out over the course of two months.
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Craig Clarke reflects on his Hatching Residency
I had known about the Nest Residency for a while after attending creative co-working several times. It had been on my to-do list for a while however an email stating that they were about to close applications promoted me to stop procrastinating and finally sort out my application. A few weeks later I got the good news of being accepted and an exchange of messages found some suitable dates.
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Kemi Awoyemi reflects on her Talking Birds Residency
I had just arrived in the country and was in search of a job. Back in Lagos, Nigeria, I promised myself that moving to the UK meant I would fully explore my art any possible way I could. In a bid to escape idleness and overthinking I felt the need to create, the only question was how? I had no resources or contacts, let alone a suitable space to create. Google comforted me by leading me to the Nest residency. I discovered Talking Birds at the best time; actively chasing healing, seeking an outlet to express my fears and concerns creatively and most importantly a safe space. I did my research on them, sent in my application and within a period of time I got selected to be a part of the Nest residency.
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Sam HH reflects on her Nest Residency
The Nest Residency gave me so much more than I had ever imagined it could. So this is not just about what I did but what I gained. Not just creatively but personally. I had never been given space like this before. It felt greedy. Privileged. It felt overwhelmingly scary. I felt guilt – taking up space when it could have been used for someone else. Especially as I felt like I was maybe tricky.
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Luisa Freitas reflects on her Talking Birds Hatching Residency
For my Hatching residency with Talking Birds I wanted to explore the best methods to approach and talk about the topic of Trichotillomania and the overall Body Focused Repetitive Behaviour Disorders. As someone who struggles with the Trichotillomania condition (hair pulling disorder) and only recently learned about it due to my own research, I wanted to educate the audience on it so that people are better informed and equipped to deal with it. With special focus in reaching out to those who have the same issue but feel lost and don’t know what is happening to them, or who to go to to learn about it.
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It’s been a rocky five years for many of us. It’s definitely been a rocky five years for the arts. And if you are an artist based in Coventry, it’s been a right rocky rollercoaster of a five – well actually probably more like ten – years.
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Cait Buckley reflects on her Hatching Residency
Before I began my nest residency I had been in the biggest creative rut I had encountered since I began making art. I had all of these ideas, yet didn’t have the drive to explore them. Something about keeping them in my mind and not putting them out into the world felt like the safest bet for me. The space and time given to me through my nest residency allowed me to really dive into what was blocking my creativity, and why I felt it was better to keep my ideas in my thoughts rather than out in the world.
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Michelle Bailey reflects on her Hatching Residency
I always tell people (and myself) that if I had more time I would be able to be more productive and creative. But the reality is that I’m the biggest detriment to my creativity. I could find the time, I could be more focused, I could be more disciplined. So when I finally got the time and space to work on a new idea, I was excited but also anxious about the experience. What if I can’t do it? What if my work is rubbish? What if I fail at it?
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Words from the Birds 