Sou'wester Artist Residency Reflection

I feel very lucky to have recently spent a week in March at Sou’wester in Seaview, WA - and I’m excited to tell you about it!

I proposed to spend the week making kites with my friend Iris - something neither of us had ever done before. Since moving to the Pacific Northwest, I’ve really become enamored with kites, and had an excellent time at the Kite Festival in Longbeach, WA last summer.

Additionally, I had a bolt of white ripstop nylon that was left over from a previous commission that has been begging to be used for something. So when I saw that Sou’wester has an artist residency on the coast, I realized this would be an ideal location for kite making!

I think that kites make excellent vessels and have interesting cultural histories - some of which I learned about. A kite can be a message. carrier, has been used as a sort of life saver, and in a number of weather experiments. They are also a simple joy to fly!

I had a medium degree of success - partially because the weather was not excellent and so it was challenging to do tests. I also started out making parafoils - a kind of kite without a rigid frame. I was drawn to a kite that is only sewn, but struggled to figure out how to fix these when they didn’t fly. I learned a lot about wind and mostly successfully made 4 kites. Hopefully I can continue!

Another really fun thing that Iris and I did was to add reflective elements to all of our kites - inspired mostly by their Reflective Society business. Then we took the kites out on the night of the full moon (and lunar eclipse!) and got to see the reflective stuff do its thing.

I suppose this is all to say that doing this artist residency was an excellent reset for me, and I really love getting to spend a dedicated amount of time making art, without having to consider other obligations. Especially so when I get to do it with other people! Come fly kites with me sometime!

And of course, a reminder of where you can find me in the near future: