Winter was exceptionally severe in Laugarvatn. Gales battered the farmhouse until it shook and snow was piling up against the walls, but not for a moment did I regret my visit. Indoors everything was comfy and I never failed to find inspiration outside. I found myself in an overwhelming snowscape. And to top it all there was the Aurora Borealis. Such a bonus!

Alda and Kristveig proved to be the ideal hostesses for me, providing companionship when I desired it and leaving me in peace when work needed to be done. Two women that I admire and found it difficult to take leave of. They have kind husbands and children to boot, which made saying goodbye even harder. Gullkistan is the ideal workplace, I dare-say. If you don’t mind icy conditions, you will find quiet and well-heated accommodation there.

I was working on a book situated in Iceland. I am expecting to finish it in a few months.

After living a year in China, I decided to apply for an art residency,
in a place where nature and art both seems to be rich and alive.

I’m now working in Gullkistan, the perfect place to find the calmness
and the amount of space to follow the creative process.

Thank you Alda and Kristveig!

Here a first part of my project: Picture “the fence lamp” 2012

LIVE AV-PERFORMANCE

Video : Mia Makela
Audio: Zahra Mani

All material shot in Iceland during Gullkistan residency in September 2011.

Premiere – Phonofemme, Vienna 30.10.2011

Support : AVEK, Arts Council of Finland
Thanks: Gullkistan Residency. Iceland

©2011

Hi! my name is Rachel Rader. I live in Seattle, Washington. This is my first time in Iceland and I love it!

(The albino pony is a friend we made in Laugarvatn, and the rock stack was on top of Gullkistan mountain marking the path… That’s me in front of the waterfall. And the photo of me lying in the moss is a part of a series I started on our road trip around the perimeter of the island before we made it to Gullkistan… it was taken at Godafoss.)

Being a resident at Gullkistan has given me the rare opportunity to recuperate and create. Thanks Alda and Kristveig!

RR

Howdy there! My name is Vivian and I am from the United States (Washington).

I came here to Laugarvatn to paint the landscape. So far, I´ve finished four paintings and I am fairly pleased with my progress. My artistic abilities are being stretched as Iceland has a lot of varying shades of grey and, since I don´t often work with grey, I am trying my best to discover the subtle joys of greyness. =)

Stay tuned.

Vivian

Some pictures of my trip that I will use later for my work.

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I had a productive and terrific month at Gullkistan in May 2010 (thank you, Alda and Kristveig!) and on my last day, I was on my way to the airport with a dozen drawings of the landscape and some little paintings when I had an accident 15 minutes out of Laugarvatn .  It was a 360 degree roll and the car landed on its wheels and I was able to get out and away from the car which was just about totaled.   I was bleeding and quite bruised, but, as it happens, no internal injuries and after a couple of months, I was fine fortunately, but that took a while to find out.

I bring it up because it impacted what I did with the art work I made there…the accident was at the site of my largest drawing.  As I lay on the side of the road for about an hour (with a wonderfully kind Icelandic woman holding my hand) waiting for the ambulance, I repeated a prayer of my youth, the Roman Catholic “Hail Mary,” as it seemed to calm me.  I left the church over 40 years ago and have spent the last 25 researching and reading about earlier goddess religions and about three years ago I decided I needed a mantra/prayer in times of crisis and that the “Virgin May” was clearly a late manifestation of those earlier figures–plus her pray was familiar.  I continued to repeat it to myself throughout the long ride to the Reykjavik hospital (where they were wonderful) and until the scans came back that there were no internal injuries.  When I got back home to NY, after a couple of weeks of rest, I started stenciling the words of the “Hail Mary” on that site’s drawing…from there I stenciled some of those words on other drawings, as well as words from ancient prayer to Isis and Ishtar.  I am now in love with the idea of words and images, nature and goddesses, working together in my art and I’m about to show these drawing in my upcoming solo show at the Blue Mountain Gallery in Chelsea in NYC.  (See www.sharynfinnegan.com for the exhibit announcement and some drawings that are not so dark!  My apologies for the dark image–on white paper though you can’t tell.)  You never know where a journey will take you.