WEDNESDAYCRIT

WEDNESDAY CRIT SURROUNDINGS

Dennis Delay, Zhiqian Wang, and Ellie Swanson

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Dennis Delay

2022 Place-Based Artist-in-Residence Snow Geese Graphite on paper, 12”x16”

Dennis Delay's current body of work explores the places and people of his Irish immigrant ancestors who fled famine and religious persecution and settled in the Adirondacks in the mid 1800s. For a short period, some of them lived on and farmed the land of present day Craigardan.

Elinor Swanson

2022 Resident Internship

My name is Elinor Swanson and I am an artist from Rhode Island. My work is very narrative-driven, and I enjoy creating pieces inspired by fairy tales and folk stories.

I graduated from the University of Vermont in Spring 2021 with a degree in Studio Arts. I focused mainly on printmaking during my time at school, but I took a few ceramics courses as well. I am always looking to explore new craft forms. Since graduating I have been searching for ways to continue expanding my craft knowledge, and gain a better understanding of how I can pursue a career in the arts.

This search for information is what brought me to Craigardan. This summer I have been working and living at Craigardan as a resident intern. My time here has been divided between working in the pottery studio and on the farm.

Being at Craigardan has come with its challenges. I’ve had to adapt to living in a tent, waking up at a time that is unnaturally early for me, and being more social than I am used to.

However with the challenges there have been many rewards. I’ve explored the beauty of the Adirondacks through hiking and swimming, learned useful farming techniques, made pottery, and met lots of incredible people. I know that the life lessons and skills I’ve acquired during my time in-residence will be with me throughout the rest of my life. The artwork that I’ve made over the length of my internship has been very inspired by the farm and the

surrounding landscape. In addition to the pots I’ve thrown, I’ve been able to dabble in a couple of other mediums. One of the first pieces I made was a watercolor landscape of the farm. Another one of my early pieces made during my time here was an embroidery featuring a deceased dragonfly that I found on the side of the road. I called it a “Dead Thread”. The dragonfly was eaten (presumably by one of the many resident chipmunks) shortly after I stitched this piece. However, the main medium I came to Craigardan to work with was ceramics. I am very interested in exploring surface design on pots, specifically through a technique known as sgraffito. Sgraffito involves covering an unfired pot with a colored slip, underglaze, or other substance that is generally different in color from the clay body. Once coated, the pot is carved to create different designs through the contrast of the colored coating and the clay body. I enjoy carving iconography that I see often on the farm such as plants, bugs, and birds, as shown on the cups. The bowl features my favorite farm animal. I am excited to continue working in ceramics, and to see how the knowledge I’ve gained this summer informs my next steps in life and art.

Zhiqian Wang

2022 Place-Based Artist-in-Residence

Moonlight of the Twins View video on her website at earthandjerry.com

Zhiqian Wang is a conceptual artist. She defines her own notion of conceptual art as “a network of relationships”. In the tradition of conceptual art, there is a general thinking that the concepts inherited by the use of language were prior to the physical object. However, she believes the meaning embedded in the close relationship between artists and their work is more important than what is being expressed directly. It has to be understood in a network of relationships bounded by language. Together, they accomplished a value that has not yet been realized: It is a value beyond the framework of language, a value inherent in our cognition but was excluded from our system of knowledge, a value that is highly abstract, a value that has infinite possibilities.