During my residency, I had the invaluable opportunity to step away from the noise of daily life and immerse myself fully in my practice. With space to reflect and create, I began an intimate and deeply personal series of small self-portraits, focusing on my chin and hands. These works explored the emotional landscape of returning to myself after a bike accident that had injured my jaw and broken my painting wrist. The series became both a process of healing and a quiet celebration.

My residency changed my work forever, in both form and color. The teals and lavenders I introduced in New Mexico are now omnipresent in my pieces, and the memory of the afternoon rain impacts all my line work.

My residency at Jen Tough Gallery was an amazing experience to delve into focused and uninterrupted time to play and experiment with various paints and techniques. The environment was ideal for immersing myself into my creative process

The vast skies and incredible light were mesmerizing. I wanted to drink it all in, for it to last forever, to capture it in a box. I tried with my camera yet this magnificent landscape was too vast for that. It was more than landscape, it was a connection with something bigger. It wrapped itself around me and nestled into my being, The colors, the light, the purple mountains forever imprinted on me.

My residency was valuable in two ways. Primarily it allowed me to experiment. I didn’t have distractions or pressure to create a final product like I do when working in my studio. I use the layering techniques I experimented with during my residency and increased skill in rendering depth in my work. Secondly, I benefited from the lively conversations with other artists doing their residencies. The discussions with each artist were both positive and inspiring and learning about their various processes was intriguing. I highly recommend enjoying a residency here. It is good for the soul and your artistic practice.

My time as a resident artist reinvigorated my creative practice, gifting me a lasting momentum that I carried home to my own studio and work flow. I had been dabbling back into live figure drawing before my residency, but after I got home I became much more diligent and consistent in going every week. I find figure drawing keeps my eye sharp and mind flexible in meeting creative challenges - skills that are integral to my creative practice in other mediums.

Santa Fe has long been one of my favorite places, so I was thrilled to discover Jen’s Studio Residency program. I came last year to break free from constraints and challenge my creative comfort zone—it was a transformative experience. This year, I’ve returned with my husband and our little dog, who’s now become my studio muse.

My time spent in residency at Jen Tough gallery left me deeply inspired by the fantastic artists whom I shared a week in the summer of 2023. Playing with bolder colors, layering, encouraging movement, and developing a personal style became a goal after my experience in this creative and vibrant work environment.

I came into this residency planning to use a different palette (softer) than I normally do. I based my pieces on the sounds, smells, and colors that I experienced while visiting Santa Fe. My time at Jen Tough Gallery resulted in a calmer, yet rich in color mixes, that I fell in love with. I was able to play, mix, and create outside my normal frame of bold and bright.

My residency was a wonderful respite with time to just focus on my work, minus the usual day to day distractions. The studios are set in the hills outside of Santa Fe, in the stark and always inspiring beauty of the high chaparral. Having lived in Santa Fe for 12 years before come to the Bay Area, for me it was a homecoming on so many levels. While there I worked on my ongoing SWIMMER SERIES, both an internal and external reflection and expression of myself in the world as a being

The Light! On all those magnificent desert colors: lucious siennas, deep umbers, and rich ochres. How can one not but strive to replicate them!

This atmospheric skyscape is a meditation on light, space, and presence—a visual deep breath wrapped in color. I painted it to hold that quiet moment when the sky seems to expand and everything softens. Layer upon layer of luminous tones mirror the shifting desert light, blending saturation with stillness. It’s both a window and a mirror, capturing the landscape outside and the clarity within.