A Space to Create - Resident Artist Georga Ryan

Today we bid farewell to Georga Ryan, our most recent resident artist, who came to us from Melbourne, Australia. Georga has spent the last five weeks here, and it’s been nothing short of wonderful watching her interact with our space at Small Pond Arts.

Her first projects here were a series of wind-powered drawing machines. Each had a pencil or piece of charcoal attached to a string... left outdoors for a period of time, the wind did the drawing!

Georga set up a couple of installations in our Big Field, like this dreamy bedroom scene, which included a solar-powered reading lamp:

Her next project involved constructing a series of three wooden triangles woven with coloured thread, which she hung in the barn and lit with overhead projectors, to dramatic effect:

Detail

Two of these triangles can now be viewed as an installation on our Artists’ Trail. The third one she is taking with her to Burning Man in August... as she transformed it into this:

I can't wait to see pictures of this piece as she and her cohorts transform it into an installation! 

Georga says of her work: People's artistic practice and process of making is largely reflective of their environment. My spatial surroundings changed from city to countryside living and this is reflective in my recent works. I was drawn to work with different materials and received an altered connection with objects that I was familiar working with.

Georga also helped out with some collaborative projects, such as our yarn-bombing project on the Artists’ Trail…

… painting moss graffiti in the silo…

… and helping me build pieces of Cardboardia, an installation I’ll be doing at Skeleton Park Music Festival later this month.

She also got to celebrate with us as we held our fourth annual Banner-Raising Party!

When Georga booked her residency several months back, I warned her that the normally peaceful Small Pond would become a bit of a madhouse over the May long weekend, as my sister Meagan was getting married at the farm. Ever one to roll with the punches, Georga pitched in as our bartender!

We wish Georga well on her continuing adventures!

If you’d like to find out more about our artist residency program, check out our website.