I love to draw. A new piece of paper is a clean rich space. It is potential space, blankness awaiting its filling. For me, drawings are final works of art but the process of drawing can also serve as a transitional time for entering into other forms of artmaking. In order to quench my thirst for both drawing and collaborating, seven years ago I imagined Drawing In Residence, an urban, day-long residency in my apartment in San Francisco. Drawing In Residence was designed as both a playful jab at and salute to the institution of artist residencies. The landscape, de rigeur for residencies, was the expansive Northern California sky and the San Francisco Bay which drew the boundaries of my small apartment outward. I invite artists whose work has a drawing component to it. People who love the activity as much as I do. I prepare a farm fresh meal for each resident. In order to document the process and to further the exchange that the residency is based on, I worked with graphic designer Marc Phu to make posters that advertised each artist’s work.

Phase I of Drawing In Residence, Never Underestimate the Power of a Drawing was exhibited at Refusalon in San Francisco in February of 2001. Phase II was exhibited in Austria at the Wintergarten Galerie as part of the solo show I had there, madetheappleorchardmissedthesugarcanefiedtrip. Phases II and III left the confines of my home while I traveled to Europe for shows, fostering an incredibly rich visual dialogue. There's been a lot of funny, profound and thoughtful work generated through both staying at home and traversing back and forth across the ocean. Phases II and III will culminate in a show curated by Kristina Newhouse at the Torrance Art Center in January of 2007, an editioned print by Resident Susan Silton and this website. Drawing In Residence operates successfully without a specific base (its walls are dissolvable – when I travel, the residency relocates with me).

Three on site residencies will take place at the Torrance Art Museum connecting artists from Los Angeles with artists in Paris and Vienna at a central point, the ideas transmitting themselves through me and through the final works of art. I love the thought of ideas being shared through the exchange of artwork. Though the work finally enters the gallery at the end of each phase, the project has created a community of active participants and an audience before it arrives.

The following artists have taken part in Drawing In Residence:

Phase I: San Francisco
Kim Anno, Libby Black, Keith Boadwee and Yauger Williams, Sally Elesby, Tia Factor, Katrin Feaser, Harrell Fletcher, Matthew Higgs, Amanda Hughen, Heather Johnson, Charles Linder, Ted Purves, Rigo 2003, Jon Rubin, JP Villegas

Phases II & III: Los Angeles - Austria - Germany - France - Los Angeles
Joe Biel, Lynne Berman, Ismael DeAnda, Martin Durazo, Nancy Evans, Alison Goldberg, Alex Grant, Todd Gray/Kyungmi Shin, Liz Harvey, It Can Change, Seth Kaufman, Sarah Moseley, John O’Brien, Yoshua Okun, Elizabeth Saveri, Susan Silton, Joe Sola, Indigo Som/Oriane Stender, Eric Golo Stone, Carrie Ungerman

On the road in Austria, Nives Widauer
In France, Rachel Urkowitz
In Germany, Marcus Sendlinger

Phase IV: This phase will begin the week of February 10th, 2007 as part of the show Marcy and Marcy at Cuchifritos in New York City. Two residencies will take place the week prior to the opening and the work will be presented as part of the show. Phase IV residents: Xylor Jane and Peter Coffin.

Upcoming residencies with: Yuval Pudik

-- Marcy Freedman