AlLyson Darkajian: “As an artist who seeks to integrate my caretaking practice and creative practice, this residency was a perfect fit.”
My time at the residency was such a gift, for myself, for my family, and for my creative practice. I felt honored to be a part of a list of such esteemed previous residents, and so thankful to be able to have the opportunity to have my family welcomed into the entirety of my residency experience. I really believe in the vision and work that Matt, Liz and Meg are doing by providing creative space for artists who are also caretakers. As an artist who seeks to integrate my caretaking practice and creative practice, this residency was a perfect fit.
My work for the past few years has benefited from the integration of the psychological, emotional and mental developmental phases of my children. This has led to an interesting correlation to my own martescence. My oldest doesn’t really know how to read or write yet, but I know it is coming soon as he is entering kindergarten in the fall. Soon, his lines and marks will hold meaning as they turn to letter forms and they will unlock an ability for him to communicate with the world that will expand his reality exponentially. Before the residency, I began to grieve what will inevitably be lost - this time right now where image is all there is. I’ve been collecting his drawings for a few months, struck by their directness, their silliness but also their tenderness in serious attention to things like how to draw a killer whale or a police car siren or a neighborhood. I watched how his drawings of people turned from scribble blobs to circles with stick arms to people with full on personalities. I can see him gaining more control over his world.
As a ritual and a form of performative exploration, I set up a “cave” in the backyard residency studio in honor of the space my son inhabits now, a space of image before language, echoing the origins of cave art, where meaning was first made in marks rather than words. I’m trying to pay attention to the many layers of time that are compressed into a single moment of exploration. Later on during my time at the residency I spent my creative time making collages of my son's drawings, exploring them as potential studies for larger paintings. It was a very sweet experience of collaboration with my children and allowed us all space to be full of childlike wonder for a concentrated amount of time.
This attitude of simple and serious attention was shared with the community during the Blind Contour workshop we hosted. Blind contour drawing is the act of drawing something you see without looking at the paper, enabling the experience of being guided by sense and touch not by sight. There were so many moments of synchronicity during my time in San Antonio as I was integrated into Matt, Liz and Meg’s incredible community of friends, and the workshop itself was definitely one of these experiences. Many of the participants in this workshop were mothers who had brought their young children along. As I led the exercises, the sound of these children playing around us felt like an uncanny echo of the way my own creative practice has unfolded over the past several years. I felt seen in my work and grateful to be able to invite others into that kind of space. I hoped to offer that same permission to the workshop participants as I was offering myself in my own creative process during the residency and to my son as we created together, to embrace the “imperfect scribble” and trust the felt sense of something, rather than striving for a perfect articulation or drawing.
Beyond the creative work, we cherished our time exploring San Antonio and simply being together as a family. The city offered so many beautiful moments and meaningful conversations with new friends. These experiences I know will leave a lasting impact on both me and my family. When I reflect on my time at the Parts+Labor residency, the word that rises to the surface is hospitality. Hospitality often shows up as care: shared meals, thoughtful gestures, inclusion, hosting, and the gift of time and space. These same qualities are deeply connected to the idea of ritual. In that sense, I’ve come to see my time at the residency as a kind of creative ritual - one held and uplifted by extraordinary hospitality.
