Category: SOURWOOD FOREST ARTIST RESIDENCY

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Poppies and Patricia: Sourwood Forest, June 2024

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Poppies. The Fancy Poppies, as I call them, not the smaller, orange kind that grow on roadsides (though we do have a few of those around, too). These are descendants of one packet of seeds a friend shared with me about ten years ago. They come up in various places every year. When the weather is right (cool nights, not much rain, as it was this year), they are a grand feature in the late May and early June yard. Patricia Wallbertson, our June resident, was lucky enough to witness their fantastic transmutations from bowed bud to erect open bloom to petals falling and seedhead emerging. Each day she’d spend time visiting the poppies in the yard, watching their process of becoming and unbecoming. She would stare at them, draw them, later adding textural paints she created using some of the soil from the creek or yard. Patricia was impressed by the diversity of forms, textures, and ecological processes happening all over– from poppies in the yard to decomposing logs in the woods to the shadows, light, and moods of Melody Creek. She was interested in soils, the decomposition process that they embody, their differences and the way in which they define a place. She surprised me by how much she delved into the opportunity to connect with the environment specific to this place. She seemed to let it guide her process rather than her being driven by preconceived ideas or abstract intentions about what she wanted to make happen. One of the pieces she made here is gradually merging into the front yard: a clay human figure prone on the ground with hands outstretched holding onto string. The strings stretch up to a redbud sapling about three feet above the small body, and their ends attach to a piece of clay- stained cloth. The cloth is the one Patricia had between her hands and the clay as she molded the body’s shape. The image left on the fabric seems a sort of apparition of the body’s creation. We enjoyed talking about what meanings this combination of form, string, and cloth might offer a viewer. I imagine the clay figure as a man prostrate in a kind of prayer, as if he sees the image of his own creation and thinks it is the face of God. The clay-stained cloth is an idol he worships as it flutters in the… Continue reading

Come to Sourwood Forest Summer 2024

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As I prepare to welcome artist Patricia Wallbertson to Sourwood Forest next week, I’m remembering other Sourwood Forest summers and hoping to find more artists and writers to visit this summer and early fall. If you’d like to spend time at Sourwood Forest, please contact me by searching for Judy C. Strang in “faculty and staff” on the Washington & Lee University website, and email me at the address you find there. (My technology wizard is working on a fix to prevent all the unwanted traffic we’ve been getting from the contact form on the website.) Here’s a testimonial about Sourwood Forest a former writer/artist-in-residence: “When I first arrived at Sourwood Forest, I was greeted by a particularly friendly wood thrush perched on a nearby fence post. For weeks I had spent my mornings following a thrush’s call near my home without ever spotting its source. But here, in this remote corner of Amherst County, VA, beyond the car horns, advertisements, and fluorescent linings of the city, I was met, immediately, by what I’d been looking for, as if the bird had been nudging me here all along. In the days that followed, during my short stay at Sourwood Forest, this suspicion was confirmed again and again–by the soft silence of the mornings, writing at the window overlooking a quilt of native flowers and shrubs; by the path of white oak, beech, and (yes) sourwood that bent through the understory; by a quirky family of goats, all congregating nearby for their next taste of tree trimmings; and by the birds, over and over again–the tenacious hummers battling at the feeders, that chance encounter with a yellow-breasted chat, the fiery coat of a scarlet tanager. Sourwood Forest not only offered a perfect place to write, to walk, and to witness, it offered me a place to be, to remember how to be. The wood thrush, with its one-bird harmony, knew what I needed after all.” (Grant Kittrell, June 2023) Continue reading

A Place to Connect, Create, Inspire: Sourwood Forest is Seeking Writers for Summer 2024 Residencies

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Sourwood Forest in Western Amherst County, Virginia inspires through direct experience in nature, fostering curiosity, artistic expression, and wellbeing. We are currently seeking writers* for residencies in May, June, July, August, and September, offering flexible dates and rates. The spacious home is on sixty acres of untrailed forest, where the nearest human neighbor is a mile away. Inside is space for two residents, affording each a private bedroom, desk or table, and comfortable chair. Residents share a bathroom and are welcome to use the house’s main kitchen and communal spaces. For information, search Judy C. Strang in faculty and staff at Washington & Lee University and send an email to that address (Note: Sourwood Forest is not affiliated with Washington & Lee, I’m just having technological problems with the contact form on this website). *Visual artists who don’t need much indoor space and who work with natural materials are also welcome. Continue reading

A Cool May at Sourwood Forest

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I was tempted to draft this post on the back porch, but Mr. Wren, whose partner is nesting in the potted coleus plant nearby, stood not four feet from my chair and scolded me. The nest is holding five eggs that are getting very close to hatching. May brought so many cool mornings, like in the old days. And today, June 1, the cool seems even more precious. That’s why I headed out first thing, with my tea cup in hand, to be in the woods at the time of birdsong and deep shadow. I’m working on a loop trail that could be used all summer, something Sourwood Forest doesn’t have. My husband and I like our woods to feel unpeopled, and trails make the presence of people palpable even when no people are there. But I think the benefits of this trail for artists who will visit Sourwood Forest justify it. On May 6, artist Siobhan Byrns (University of Lynchburg) and poet Grant Kittrell (Randolph College) generously gave their time on a Saturday to lead an art-in-the-woods event. Sioban had prepared materials for everyone, including specially dyed paper that, when activated by UV rays from sun, imprinted likenesses of whatever materials were captured between sunlight and paper. As we wandered into Sourwood Forest to choose our materials and create our images, we focused on the richly detailed diversity making up the decaying duff of the forest floor and delighted in the patterns of new leaves on every living plant.  Dappled sunshine made bright pools of light into which we could set our projects to soak in the rays, as the background paper turned from blue to white. We finished the projects on the back porch of the house, using shallow trays of water to “set” the image into the paper, then hung what seemed like subtle miracles in blue on a clothesline to dry near the blooming irises.  After lunch we gathered on the front yard deck under a circle of old oaks to hear Grant Kittrell read poetry. And we engaged in a discussion that wandered from the subject of black snakes to the powers of old trees, both real and imagined. Birds sang, a slight breeze whispered through the young leaves in the forest canopy, and the spectacular light of a May afternoon made everything (including us!) glow with the light of spring.  I was happy to… Continue reading

What is Sourwood Forest?

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It is the name I’ve given to a part of the woods on the property where I have lived with my husband Scott since 1992. Large Beech, various Oaks and White Pines form the highest canopy and a diversity of other beings make up the rest, from high above our heads to down deep into the forest floor duff. Sourwood Forest is the part of our woods where you’ll find a couple of meditation benches in places we love to visit from season to season. It is where we walk and wonder at how the forest is growing more engaging as it ages, where we recognize how fortunate we are that our property happens to be home to a diverse natural community of beings living and thriving because we don’t interfere. All logging stopped here in the late 1970s. The only trees felled in Sourwood Forest since then are the pines that are now part of our house. I named Sourwood Forest after the tree species who has become my favorite. Sourwoods are mid canopy species. They have subtle beauty to offer at every season, from their lovely bark, arching trunks, and delicate flower sprays to their glorious range of fall colors. The Mission of Sourwood Forest is to encourage creative inquiry and artistic expression in connection with nature, but in a larger sense, it’s about helping people envision the changes humans must make in order for any of us to survive anywhere. Art, in the largest sense of the term, has always provided insight into a bigger picture. In this case, I’m hoping it can help nurture awareness that the human animal is part of nature. That understanding is key to our making wise choices as we live from day to day within the climate crisis and ecological peril that is our time. I am seeking a few creative people to come here each fall and spring to stay in the house for a week or two, spend time in Sourwood Forest, and translate their experiences into art, writing, scientific inquiry, or improving the well being of themselves and others. It is an experiment in the beginning stages, having started in May of 2022. And as more people come here, the forest will grow, change, and nurture the humans who spend time there. The first Sourwood Forest Residency took place in May 2022. During their time here, residents engage… Continue reading

Pedlar River Institute’s Sourwood Forest Residency Program Begins!

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Nature offered us a perfect spring day for the opening celebration of Sourwood Forest’s first artist residency week! Thirteen people went into the forest to draw using charcoal pencils made from the trees that grow there. Judy Strang, Christine Forni (multidisciplinary artist) and Amy Eisner (poet and teacher) collaborated to create an event where guests were treated to poetry, group conversation, refreshments, and a chance to try their hands at sketching in the woods. Everyone left energized, having been nurtured by the forest and by each other. The opening celebration forecasted what future half or full day workshops may include: a mix of art making, poetry, reflection, and environmental understanding. Event leaders Judy, Christine and Amy had first met when they were residents at Vermont Studio Center in June of 2017. Even then, Judy was speaking of her desire to host artists at her house, but it wasn’t until late in 2021 that the three began to talk about the start of Sourwood Forest: it would be marked by Christine and Amy coming to Judy’s place as the first “residents” for what Judy was calling “an experimental week.” When Judy indicated she’d like to host a public event as part of that week, Christine described her “drawing you outside” (see her instagram #drawingyououtside for more information). Christine offered to make charcoal pencils from trees in Sourwood Forest ahead of time, so Judy sent her a box of twigs in March, having carefully chosen them and documented their harvest. As a poet and teacher of poetry to visual artists (at MICA in Washington D.C.), Amy used her talents with language to integrate Christine’s “drawing you outside” activity with Judy’s intention that guests connect and reflect within the forest. She chose and arranged words—her poems and the writing of others—to weave the two and a half hours into one whole experience rather than a series of disconnected activities.  “We’ve just begun to imagine what could happen here,” Judy said, remarking on the positive responses from her guests to the event and to possibilities for Sourwood Forest in the future. She had started with a list of six invitees, and several of those had reached out to their contacts, resulting in a wonderfully diverse group–one that will likely help Judy find more creatives to take part in future residencies. If you’re interested in a Sourwood Forest Residency, send your inquiry through our Contact… Continue reading