What do I do once I’ve built my DEN? First, I would suggest you set a time frame for your resiDENcy. It doesn’t matter if it moves about a bit, cause life, but a residency is supposed to be a temporary period of time and I suspect without an end point there might be a temptation to ‘do it later’. I’m planning to work on mine for two months. Secondly, I suggest you find a way to leave any negative feelings/thoughts outside your DEN so you are free to create without judgement (yours or anyone else’s) once you are inside it. I’ll be honest, this a big one for me. I really struggle with self doubt so my plan is to put a basket outside my DEN and every negative thought I have will be written down on a piece of paper and put in it. You can deal with this any way you want. You could do the same as me and write them down on paper (I may make a piece of art out of mine at the end…or I might just burn them!) or you could write them on a pebble, or even just say them out loud…whatever is going to work for you!
Thirdly (is that even a word?), unleash your inner 5 year old. Experiment! Play! Try ALL the things, even if what you have just created is THE worst thing you have ever seen/read/heard, just take a note that that bit hasn’t worked and move on. Which reminds me, it might be a good idea to take notes. Make a record of what you are doing. What did you love? What did you hate? How did you feel when you created that? How might you take the learning from that back to your every day creative practice? Try not to have any preconceived ideas (I’ll be honest, I have no idea what the hell I’m doing so we’re all in the same boat!) and just let one experiment lead you to the next and the next and lets see what happens.
Fourthly (I really feel like I’m making up words now!), share what you are doing. One of the things always highlighted at the end of traditional artist residencies is the value of the connections that have been made throughout the process. I don’t see any reason why this resiDENcy has to be any different but I can’t follow your journey and give you support if I don’t know you are doing it. So every time you post to your socials (Instagram, Facebook etc) please tag me @artisbycarolburns and use the #resiDENcy so that I can find you. I honestly can’t wait to see all your DEN’s and I can’t wait to see what the outcome of all this experimenting is going to be!
The lovely thing about this resiDENcy is that anyone can take part. Finances, disability, family commitments, health…none of these things are barriers to being involved. So let’s do this thang! :-D Make sure you have Registered Your DEN.
By doing this you are committing to sharing at least 5 posts on your social media to show your DEN and your development. (Please tag me @artisbycarolburns and use the #resiDENcy so that I can find you).
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