Tears in Rain 💧💧💧
My week long experience in artist purgatory! Hosted by Quarantine Events in Menorca, Spain.
Tears in Rain was the 6th edition of a biannual artist residency, held on a genuine quarantined island where a group of 60+ artists have their practice and sense of self challenged on a daily basis.
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Purgatory Rules
No phones, no internet!
No perfection allowed
Open mindset required
The rules are simple, but the discomfort is real.
The quality of your learnings directly correlates with how deep you are willing to turn inwards to question your ego and motivation for your art practice.
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Wait…what?
Yes, it is indeed exactly what it sounds like!
Starting with the location, even traveling to the island itself makes one feel that they’re transporting to a far-away world.
To get there from NYC:
I took a plane from JFK to Madrid
Second flight from Madrid to Mallorca
Third flight on a tiny plane for 30 min from Mallorca to Menorca
Finally, a daily 7 minute boat ride to get to Lazaretto Island
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The daily format
The general structure was as follows:
Wake up at 6:45AM
Boat ride to Lazaretto Island at 8:15AM
Complete a series of 3 artistic challenges
Return to the hotel by 10PM
Rinse & repeat
Throughout the week, we had Masterclass talks led by honored mentors selected for the edition. In addition, we also had 3 individual 1:1 mentoring sessions which were paired in advance.
my morning view from the hotel room each day, with Lazaretto Island in the distance
The Good Stuff
In the interest of preserving a spoiler-free experience for future attendees, what I can share here are some of my favorite quotes from mentors and their Masterclass talks.
source: https://www.martinwittfooth.com/
“In creating art, the moment we share it with the world, we create a container for resonance.
In a room with 100 people, there are 100 different versions of that art in the room. Each interpretation is a different perspective.”
source: https://yukoart.com/
“If everybody likes your work, nobody loves your work.”
“My definition of success is to be someone who is respected by those whom I respect.”
“Success doesn’t come to the most talented, it comes to those who are the most committed.”
source: https://www.adammillerart.com/
“As an artist, you have a center. It’s less about discovery, more about remembering. Building a structure that allows you to access your center.”
“I wanted to re-emphasize form in a sculptural sense in my work.”
source: https://seanlayh.com/
“When it lands, it’s one of the sweetest things I’ve come across. It’s a timeless thing.” (on Shakespeare)
“It is boring, but essential to consider the business side. Think about fit for purpose, otherwise the situation and pressure might make art something else.”
source: https://www.mupan.com/
“It’s not a skill of the hand, it’s the skill of your observation.”
“As long as you have a major anchor in the image, then you can forget composition and do whatever the f*ck you want!”
source: https://www.yuliabas.com/
“When we do art, we do something new. That is scary. It is not to get rid of fear, but how to get energy from that — how to be in fear and create anyway.”
“The very most important thing is to be attentive, to listen.”
“When I make art, it is an attempt to locate myself. To make myself transparent.”
“Don’t think! When we see something and feel ‘that’s good’, it’s intuitive. It’s like an electric circuit gets completed and for a moment the whole building lights up.”
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The part where I accidentally started a cult…
At the end of each day, I would return to my hotel room to synthesize that day’s learnings and experience into a mini block print. (View print here)
On the last day, fellow peers, mentors, and organizers requested I stamp them with my erasers to create tattoos!
At first it started as a joke…
Every time I stamped someone, I would then shake their hand, welcome them to the “cult” and request for them to send two more new members to be initialized.
Slowly, but surely, this “joke” became widespread as several participants in the experiment would walk up to me requesting I stamp them.
I also stamped the Quarantine notebooks for folks to take as a souvenir back home! It was such a joy to share my love for block printing with friends ❤️
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Final Takeaways…
Yulia Bas examining “SILENT RAGE” and “AN UNBEARABLE WEIGHT” during our mentor 1:1
This experience was truly a gift that I will forever cherish. Not only were the mentors providing a wonderful resource by sharing their experience, but so were my fellow peers in the group who came from a diverse set of backgrounds.
Each day we would share meals together, discuss our love for art, and at its core what really mattered — the why behind why we make. It is a challenge, to every aspect of one’s sense of self, to participate in this experiment.
This is not for everyone, however — if you are someone looking to deepen your art practice in a meaningful way, or to challenge the beliefs you have about what your why is — I can’t recommend this experience enough!
Huge thank you to Carles, Itzi, Joan, Darren, and the rest of the team involved with organizing this life-changing experience!
To sign up for future editions, visit Quarantine Events ❤️
( Additional Notes )
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“Art doesn’t have utilitarian purpose.”
“Art’s purpose is to leave in the world Spirit Artifacts — objects that leave meaning in the world.”
“Creators express meaning, others interpret”
“The admiration of art isn’t even about admiring the final image — so much of what was the process.”
“Every line — every one of those is a single thought. Each one of those moments layer on top of each other.”
Confront yourself with things that show you, “You know nothing! Young sapling”
“One doesn’t even need to know the context to understand the emotion”
“the form is handled just right”
“removed by location, time, context, but the language here is the same”
“what decisions were made to speak to the narrative that’s on display vs. where the viewer can’t see”
“rule of 3rds, but applied to symbolism”
process = what is the matter underneath? not just the final image
“Artists feeling the world as it is are responding to it, even if it feels uncomfortable“
“We’re just moving colored mud around.”
“Nature is not mute. It is man that is deaf” - Terrence McKenna
“art speaks to each other”
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“I only regret the things I should have done but didn’t. Somehow we all survive” (the things that we did try that didn’t work out)
“Never feel embarrassed about your day job. It gets you prepared to run your own small art business.”
“What if” never gives you the answer. Only doing it opens you up to new possibilities.
“Life experience is crucial for making your art interesting”
“You feel ‘too old’? No! You are the youngest today! A perfect day to start is NOW.”
“WE. ONLY. LIVE. ONCE. What are you waiting for?”
“If you are honest with your work, clients will notice.”
“I hate the word style — it sounds superficial and static. I prefer personal voice.”
“We often can’t change who we are. We may hate how we naturally create.”
“First step: Embrace it. Find peace, and accept our unique selves.”
“Think of it like a spiral staircase, you are still there at the core”
Re: “I have too many styles. I cannot decide.”
Have you made enough work yet?
“What is popular gets over saturated very quickly.”
“If you make enough art, it figures itself out!”
Don’t try to find style externally, look inward.
START → FINISH → REVIEW → REPEAT → ∞
it’s a numbers game
start and finish as many images as you can. Avoid large works that take too much time at the early stage
honest peer & mentor reviews are crucial
there is no shortcut.do the work.
“Start almost pigeonholed. Have something distinctive people remember you for.
get known as someone who is good at ___ & ___
get good at something we really care about because that will show in our work
“Being a bit too eager in the beginning of you career is good! If you don’t care about your career, who will?”
TRENDY is short lived. COOL is FOREVER.
“Don’t make work for an imaginary audience. Make work that makes you happy”
“Rejection is part of this career. The only way to get used to it is to get used to it.”
“We can’t control how good the image will turn out, but we can control the amount of effort we put in.”
“Never prioritize efficiency over the favorite part of your creative process.”
“Stay being weird my friends”
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“The way you could distort the form and create a new visual language of human expression.”
“Even gravity can be different”
“I kept circling my base” — “let’s build skills to get closer to that center”
“Improving the quality of your references”
from photos → drawings
Re: Bone Wars painting “not discovering a truth that didn’t exist, more about claiming ownership and putting your name on the ‘discovery’ - but it originally was in the public domain”
“Build a system of unity in your art.”
“Ghost of the past, haunting the present”
narrative on political power… how those with it try to abuse it and then others turn away from them, leaving them to lose their power in the end
“Realizing in a confident drawing, the person is not drawing what they see — but what they want to see.”
“The confidence shows they were not thinking”
“Exploring the unexplored areas — finding your answer where you don’t expect to look”
“You get something and then ask, how far can I push it?”
“The more extra work you put in the beginning… makes it easier in the end”
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(on theater) “it’s thrilling, it requires the audience to imagine”
“similar to literature”
“you have to meet us somewhere and fill in the gaps”
went to see Hamlet in his hometown by candle light, felt inspired
“whatever you do, if you don’t have a business model — it becomes something else” - his dad
no external pressure = no compromise
“It is difficult to get someone to understand something, when their salary depends on not understanding it” - Upton Sinclair
“patronage” = the business side
“that shield created the means for some of the most fantastic art that exists now”
“the attention economy”
intrusive thing in our lives, impersonal, algorithmic
when we see what we love, it has our attention
*10% of idiomatic language has roots derived from Shakespeare
“As an artist, I’m a painter — but I’m attracted to so many other art forms that I’ll never get to do.”
Re: technical career “Science is my super power”
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“To this day, I still don’t know what art is.”
“I’m not intimidated by someone who knows 1000 kicks, I’m intimidated by someone who does one kick, 1000 times a day” - Bruce Lee
One rule: I need to draw something that matters to me, so I can enjoy it
“If I suck, opportunities, they never come. I do what I like, and then they come to me”
“I don’t want to be a shadow, I just want to do it my own way.”
"I like to go to Public Domain for images”
“I’m jealous of people who can draw badly so well” (on earlier folk art styles)
negative space can be an anchor
“I love the feeling of the unknown.”
“every piece is transitive, you are going”
“ignore all the rules! Making sense? F*ck no!”
“When people think they’re so f*cking right, they are not — rules are made by people, people can be wrong.”
“I use my insecurity as my power. My strength. My anger, my jealously, my hate”
“Everything bad that happened will pave the way for something in the future”
find new obsession to help you get through the rough patches (when feeling stuck on a large project)
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“to know what you are good at, you need to know your flaws”
“all the shadows are colorful”
“like an octopus, I was trying all different directions”
“if you want to grow confidence, you need to learn how to own your body”
“if you are not doing something new, you are not creating art”
new = scary, but fear ≠ bad!
“you need to heal, you cannot make art from the dark place”
“art isn’t my therapist. I am serving my art. I need to heal for my art.”
“when we don’t know, we are creative”
“if we already know, then how can we be creative?”
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“everything opens up when you’re wrong”
"Hall of Mirrors” - if you make art that is honest, or not, what you put out into the world gets reflected back at you
“everything is a catch 22, your job is to negotiate with it in some way”
“Don’t judge! It closes yourself off.”
“you are free from other people’s opinions — including the good… when people say you’re wonderful, you’re not” (hah)
“That YES moment, when you have a motivation and a knowing sense, that you’re excited about it. When you are in this state, there is no fear.”
“It’s all about relationships and finding the things that relate”
simple YES/NO, YES = interesting, NO = boring
“I was so happy. You can really trust the happiness.”
“something that is too controlled, something that is too much about what other people like — it’s not helpful”
“you ARE wrong. You are wrong. You think you know, but you do not.”
“All my work is done as associations. When you go to IG, Amazon, you are outsourcing those associations. Your feed is shaping you, doing the associating for you. It is total poison. Blocking your ability to find your natural path.”
“the signal” - when you go ‘ahhh.. Ahh!”, “ah, great!” - that feeling. It guides you. When something brings pleasure in a non-intellectual way
“I am not interested in control.”
