NYAA Leipzig International Artist Residency (LIA) 2012: Falling in Love and Tearing Away

On June 1 Four Academy students arrived in Liepzig, Germany to start an 8-week Artist in Residence Program.  Brian Dang (MFA 2013), Robert Fundis (MFA 2013), Elizabeth Glaessner (MFA 2013), and Noelle Timmons (MFA 2013) will share their experiences here throughout the summer. 

by Noelle Timmons (MFA 2013)

It's week six in our residency here in Leipzig, and the multitude of planned events and scheduled critiques will keep flowing through the end of the month. 

Noelle Timmons & Neo Rauch

In June, Rosa Loy and Neo Rauch visited us in our studios, and we not only received thoughtful and thorough words from both artists, but also a promise for a return visit, in order to give us feedback on a larger breadth of work, and in preparation for our final show at the end of the month. 

Edgar Jerins visiting Spinnerei

We also had the arrival of Edgar Jerins just a few weeks ago, and during his first weekend here we took a day trip to Berlin. Anna toured us around the city, and we got just a taste of the amazing capital. My favorites were the Kaethe Kollwitz Museum and the Holocaust Memorial: both were incredibly heavy, touching, and inspiring.  Looking ahead, we will soon get our studios visited by David Schnell, and just tomorrow we will tour the etching studio here at the Spinnerei. 

Noelle's Studio at Spinnerei

  

With all the art-related-goodness we are experiencing, I've been incredibly motivated, and am getting a true absurdness for my own art practice. As our time is slipping away, I keep thinking, "thank you Leipzig, you have so much to offer..."  We are constantly hearing whispers from other residents, people around the city, all agreeing, to something of the sort, "You will fall in love with it. You will come back to Leipzig." We can all feel the draw of the city, and sense the unique drive of art, and of alternative and underground movements, that do not exist in other cities, at least in not such a potent way. 

And so, we have three weeks left, to keep painting, keep inspired, keep falling in love with our little art city. And three weeks to tear ourselves away from it...

 

(L-R) Noelle, Elizabeth, Robert, Brian