A Look Back at January in the
Sally & Don Lucas Artists Residency

Poets Julian Talamantez Brolaski and Ariana Reines collaborated on the beginnings of something. The form has not made itself clear. Over the table at artist dinner, Brolaski speculates that this nascent creation might be a screenplay, but Reines has a hunch that it is a performance. They disagree in teasing feints, working through it. Reines also worked through the proofs of her new poetry collection, A Sand Book, forthcoming from Tin House.

Non-fiction writer, former architect, and scholar of war Daniel Monk and his collaborator—writer and architect Andrew Herscher—worked together for an intense five days on a book that Monk calls “a book-length rant, a polemic, an indictment.” Around the table, they spoke of Ikea’s project to build flat-pack housing for refugees. The book is “a comprehensive critique of the argument that the disciplines of architecture, planning, and design have produced—or can produce—replicable shelter paradigms that are capable of responding to the challenge posed by the present ‘catastrophic convergence’ event.” Around the table at his last dinner, Monk announced that during his residency, he had finished a particularly tricky chapter of the work. He was ecstatic. We toasted him. Read Monk’s This Week in My Studio post.

Poet Simon Pettet arrived in January from New York, spreading out over the tables in his studio a decade of notes about the cultural history of New York City, and wrestling with the form this work might take. He will stay into February to concentrate on this project.

Photographer Kija Lucas worked to complete a body of work, Collections from Sundown, a moving and poetic series of photographs documenting her grandmother’s journey into Alzheimer’s Disease. She writes about what she did with her hours of silence in “This Week in My Studio.”

Visual artist Dana Harel worked in clay in the studio at the top of the hill, producing and reflecting on a new, experimental body of work in three dimensions. The time at Montalvo allowed her to reflect and write about her process.

Flutist, composer, and improviser Jane Rigler worked in a composer’s studio, writing a new composition for the Areon Flute ensemble. One night after dinner, Rigler asked the artists to help her test the new piece, and two poets and a sculptor sat together at the long table in the LAP Commons and followed along with her unique score, overlaying lines of whispers, words, and tones as Rigler slid her fingertip along the line of the score to mark time. For at least one writer, this experience of time and layers demonstrated a new possibility for poetic work. She writes about her week's work in “This Week in My Studio.”

Visual artist Gregory Sale was in residence at the LAP in January and will return regularly over the coming year as he continues to unfold his upcoming exhibition at Alcatraz Island. According to the project's description: “Future IDs at Alcatraz is a yearlong project, exhibition and series of monthly public programs with the goal to shift thinking about rehabilitation, reentry, and reintegration. It amplifies the voices and visions of people returning to everyday life after incarceration and was conceived by social practice artist Gregory Sale and a team of collaborators to translate criminal justice reform efforts into a visual language. The installation features ID-inspired artworks created by and with individuals with conviction histories as they conceive of and develop a vision for a future self. In stark contrast to prison-issued IDs, these artworks represent individual stories of transformation. Working closely with Dr. Luis Garcia, Kirn Kim, Sabrina Reid, Jessica Tully and many others, Gregory Sale and his collaborators designed the project to function as a platform for conversation through performances, workshops, and civic dialogue experiments that are co-curated with community partners.”

Future IDs at Alcatraz is currently functioning as an artist studio open to Alcatraz visitors. On February 16, 2019, Gregory Sale and the Future IDs creative team will host a day of public programs in partnership with the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.

Events Coming Up in February

Open Access: Surprise!

Monday, February 25, 2019, 7pm • $10 per person*

Creation is unpredictable. It’s a non-linear process. Filmmakers, poets, visual artists often set out on a new body of work without knowing quite what’s coming. What is it like to navigate that uncertainty? At the Lucas Artists Programs at Montalvo, artists of all disciplines work in their studios on the quiet hillside. They tell stories of creations that snuck up on them, a film that took an unexpected right turn, poems that wanted to be maps, characters that changed their minds, paths that refused to be taken. Join us as screenwriter, producer and director Joie Lee, visual artist Zeinab Alhashemi, and poet Simon Pettet share stories of surprise in the creative process.   

* Free for Montalvo donors! Just log into your account in our ticketing system to claim your complimentary tickets.

THANK YOU TO OUR
LUCAS ARTISTS PROGRAM SPONSORS

Program Sponsors & Friends of the LAP

Anonymous (3) • The Ariko Family Foundation • Joan Borinstein & Gary Gartsman • Casto Travel • John & Maureen Chowning • Laura & Mark Deem • Philip & Jennifer DiNapoli • Margaret Dorfman • Marianne & Dave Ellis • Terry & Ron Epstein • Edward & Renee Fields • Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation • Goethe-Institut • Alexandra & Wolfgang Hausen • William and Flora Hewlett Foundation • Laura Jason & Bruce Henderson • Wanda Kownacki • Sally & Don Lucas • McKnight Foundation • George & Judy Marcus Family Foundation • Bill & Simona Martin • Shauna Mika & Rick Callison • Ann Marie Mix • David Nakamura, Sr. • National Endowment for the Arts • Glenn & Sherri Osaka • David and Lucile Packard Foundation • Mike & Sandi Patterson • Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation • T.M. Ravi & Francine Lejeune • Santa Clara County Parks • Sudnya Shroff & Nickhil Jakatdar • Thomas & Yuko Tiernan • Makiko Tse • Charmaine & Dan Warmenhoven • Gayla & Walt Wood • Mitchell & Kristen Yawitz

Artists in Residence
in February

Look forward to stories about the exploits and works of this new group of Sally & Don Lucas Artists Program artists in our next newsletter...

Zeinab Alhashemi
United Arab Emirates 
Guest artist in partnership with SETI Institute's Artists in Residence Program
Visual Arts

Judith Darragh
New Zealand  
Lucas Artists Fellow
Visual Arts

Gregory Hurcomb
USA
Guest Artist
Photography, Architecture, 
Design   

Joie Lee
USA
Guest Artist
Screenwriting

Kija Lucas
USA
Guest Artist
Visual Arts

Monica Lundy
USA
Guest Artist
Visual Arts

Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe
USA
Lucas Artists Fellow
Photography

Simon Pettet
USA
Lucas Artists Fellow
Poetry

Daniele Puppi
 Italy
Collaborator with Lucas Artists Fellow
Visual Arts

Ariana Reines
 USA
Guest Artist
Poetry

Gregory Sale
USA
Lucas Artists Fellow
Architectural Design, Visual Arts

Juan Felipe Waller
Germany
Lucas Artists Fellow
Music/Composition

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