I first stepped on the grounds of Craigardan in the summer of 2017, during the first year of its existence as a residency. My dear friend, Emma Silverstein, was the first resident intern, and I showed up in a road-weary daze, having traveled alone by car after a year of living by myself in Minnesota. Born a Northeasterner, it may have been my preconditioned need for anything familiar, or the obvious beauty that immersed me as Emma and I walked through the forest and over the creek to get to her home there, but I fell in love. The walk itself excited me to think, “I am going to come back here.” The second time I visited Craigardan was for a rock 'n’ roll show where Emma was performing, at a place called the Recovery Lounge in Upper Jay, New York. I was able to watch Emma and many other talented folks in the Adirondack Park region. At this point I was already signed up to come back to Craigardan in the summer of 2018 to be a resident intern, managing the ceramic studio and making my art pottery.
You may have noticed that I had not even breezed through the studio before committing myself to Craigardan, but it was love at first sight, as I mentioned, and the place proved to be like the creek that flows through the property – lush, crisp, and fully flowing in the summer and, from what I hear, cold, covered, and clear in the winter. The surrounding natural bodies of water helped maintain consistency during my time at Craigardan, and helped tie the memories made. This was a grounding thread because Craigardan has many things happening all at once: farming, food, justice, clay, writing, friends, late nights, fires, ovens (food and pottery), and everything in between. And when it comes down to it, a residency is more defined by the things surrounding the central reason you showed up there. If residencies were only about clay, if I were only to outline the great facilities at Craigardan, then it would be like most residencies I have seen and heard about.
