My Kickstarter worked! It ended today and I earned more than I expected to earn--$2,200! I'm so effing stoked, I can't believe it.
In case you have no idea why I made a Kickstarter, I'll get you caught up.
I got an artist residency at the Institut Für Alles Mögliche in Berlin, Germany for the month of August this year. That translates to "the Institute for Various Things," by the way. Super cool opportunity! But it's not free, unfortunately. And as a teacher who receives no paychecks in the month of August, I realized I'd have to crowd-source some cash in order to pay for it. And, it worked. Huzzah!
Here's a few pictures of the space I'll be working in:
Clean slate!
Aaaaand about what it'll look like when I get there.
Looking in the front window.
To find out more about this place, check out their website here. It's one of three spaces that IAM rents to artists in Berlin. It's in the neighborhood of Neukölln, which I keep reading is super hip and great and stuff. Plus it's like an apartment, too, and it even has a shower!
I plan on using this space for a couple of things: a place for planning and brainstorming, and a place for exhibiting. I will bring cameras and film to document the city, focusing on patterns in the urban landscape. I will also be writing and drawing as a way to understand the patterns I see further, and to build upon the images I'll be capturing on film. Throughout my time there, I'll put my photos and drawings and inspirational material up for the public to see, thus engaging with the community. Later, I will collect these patterns, both drawn and photographed, and transfer them to fabric and large paper through screen printing when I return to the States. I hope to marry art and design, making useful and semi-useful things out of these screen printed materials. In the end, I hope this will give me enough fresh work for my portfolio that I may apply to MFA programs in the fall and winter this year.
So, I'm one step closer to Berlin. I leave on July 29th, which gives me a little under two months to prepare. I'm excited, stunned, and thankful. BERLIN!
-A