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 friends 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 ❤️
