“The residency is over. Sandy and I presented two collaboration pieces at Monday night’s gathering of the residents. Our thoughts are complementary, coming from different directions, to meet in a workable potential: Sandy’s world is in cadence and rhythm; mine is in color, icons and their implied meaning. The experiments that we have been working with show how these approaches can come together to suggest the textured, palpable physicality of the place we are in as well as the felt, intuitive, personal experience of being here.

Ecstatic times on the endless beach at low tide, the depth of the layers of the wetland woods outside my Nahcotta cottage’s window, the transcendental light of Willapa Bay, looking east, capture my imagination and suggest color and form. Shapes may be repeated; colors lead from one to another. Just a few starts are partially known—the rest follows. Each color suggests those that follow as each layer leads my palette and placement.

This Espy Foundation residency and the use of the Sanctuary Studios have made it possible for Sandy and me to start something unique and fresh. As we go on to collaborate from our own Nahcotta studios, our dual investigation will continue.”