Residency Update

Cough...cough...I am being altruistic this week - I have a nasty virus I wish not to spread so am working from my personal residence today.

Last Tuesday was very productive - Sian Whalley (Project Co-Ordinator) and I enthusiastically discussed our upcoming 'Traverse Skill-exchange' idea. The concept is sound (not to mention innovative) so I have been spending time researching potential grants that could fund the exciting project. Not wishing to jeopardise our chances of obtaining funding I am keeping relatively quiet on this one until we have worked out all the nuts and bolts. Grant writing is a fine-art, it requires you to understand why the organising body is offering the grant (their agenda) and understading whether you and your idea fit the necessary criteria. There is much paperwork and you have to learn an entirely new language for each grant application as there is much variation and many guidelines for each type of grant.

Notice our new snazzy header (which is excerpted from a related former body of work of mine titled 'Mapsway'). I have been further consulting with Artist Rebecca Delange - she is very excited about our visual and verbal dialogue - the good news is we are on the same page!

On the publicity front, I have contacted google to notify them of our Traverse Blog URL. and am in the process of making a site-map using Free-Find that will make our blog more readily accessible to the public. I also intend using google analytics, a software program that helps one to see who is accessing the page and why.

Selected four of my own quick ink sketches to donate to the Travellers Aid Contemporary Art Folio, so you will see my artist profile shortly. I've been networking to obtain donations of contemporary emerging and mid-career artists and am awaiting response. I am also currently pricing presentation folios for our submissions.

I have constructed a vague project plan for potential ideas - including a time-line and list of resources that may be required.

I will be visiting Travellers Aid this week to photograph some of the beautiful craftwork our Trading Table features and intend showcasing a range of works using this blog.

Traversing via Creative Dialogue: Resident Artist Ellen Benson and Artist Rebecca Delange Talk using their Bodies, Found Stuff and Subjective Minds

"The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse. "

-Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)

Rebecca Delange 'Paper Project' Installation Cross-section, 2006


Ellen Benson 'Mapsway' Installation Cross-section, 2005

Talk of Myself, Resident Artist Ellen Benson and Rebecca Delange undergoing a collaborative project has been brewing since late in '05 when Rebecca and I realised we had a shared interest in the Individual and Collective Body in relation to Space, Time and Movement. Individually, we expressed this interest via physical and performative installation by private manipulation of expected public trajectories and architecture. An interest in sourcing found, already existing materials from their humble surrounds is also a shared personal preference for us both as artists.

We are now consolidating this shared interest in the form of a creative and collaborative installation itinerary. If you would like to join a mailing list to hear more about this please email me: zzzpirate@gmail.com and stay tuned for future updates!

Making Headway,

Ellen Benson
(Artist-in-Community Residence)