La Macina di San Cresci Artist Residency

The month-long artist-in-residency in Tuscany was an incredible experience. Founded by Duccio Trassinelli, Designer (his objects are in the permanent collection of MoMA, NY; Centre Pompidou, Paris and Vitra Design Museum, Germany) and Demetria “Mimma” Verduci, Architect. La Macina di San Cresci is a place for creation, presentation and documentation of contemporary art in all its forms. Based in a Tuscan hill town, Greve-in-Chianti is between two great cities of the Renaissance: Florence & Siena. Vineyards and olive groves mark the landscape that is interspersed with farmhouses, agriturismos, and ancient castles: this is the typical Chianti landscape, and I have hundreds of photos as my documentary.

La Macina di San Cresci consists of a studio space, a gallery and residence for artists and it is located in the historic complex of the Pieve di San Cresci, the oldest in the Chianti area. The 10th-century parish church of San Cresci is one of the most important Romanesque structures in the region of Chianti, Italy, in a region famous for its Romanesque parish churches. The parish church (pieve), named after the Holy Martyr Acrisio, commonly known as Cresci, is one of the most ancient in the diocese of Fiesole and documented for the first time in 963. The original structure has been modified over the years, and the Romanesque characteristics of the church have been preserved only in the little narthex in front of the facade, where the doorway is flanked by two mullioned windows with the columns surmounted by cubical capitals. Inside, a canvas depicting the Madonna of Rosario, signed by Francesco Boldrini and dated 1615, and a 16th-century crucifix are preserved. It was renovated in the 1600’s and again in the 1800’s.

Mimma and Duccio have been here for over 30 years. It took them 20 years to renovate the building due to it being a historical site. They even hired artists from Florence to repaint the original frescos. Both have devoted themselves to the arts through this creating this artist-in-residency and are involved in various other creative projects in the communities of Tuscany and Florence. Their life’s work includes inviting these communities to be receptive to artistic practices that don’t conform to traditional expectations.

The opportunity to work for an extended period in an environment that is quite different from the urban milieu of the cities I had recently traveled to – Barcelona, Paris, London, Milan, Bologna, and Florence was the reset button I truly needed. All of the immensely stimulating travel – galleries, museums, street art and concerts filled my creative well. Although, after six weeks of being on the move and seeing so much art, I became a little ungrounded and needed to decompress.

What I discovered from this experience at San Cresci is that I need to take the time to be with myself to make art. Being busy all of the time does not facilitate the coming forht of cool ideas.

San Cresci was the place where I could settle down. For two weeks, I was the only resident. Life was quiet, simple and it rained a lot. Most days I would work in the studio for hours, interrupted only by Duccio restocking the wood-burning stove. This residency provided the solitude I needed to experiment with new ideas, approaches and teach myself new technology. It was a real contrast – the ancient culture all around me while I embraced and engaged in this new media practice. I had time to rethink and renegotiate my intentions with the research I am doing in this program, and the feedback is that work shifted while I was there. It is more textured, more abstract and there is a richness of color and emotion in each new piece I made.

The process was still similar: organizing and gathering my photos and screen captures, feeling inspired to work with one or two images, rough compositing, testing, masking, playing with the algorithms, and finally playing with colors and brushstrokes. What was different were the results. I am not sure why, but I think what I am making is a bit more multidimensional. Maybe from all of the recent experiences, perhaps I have new facets in my life lens.

The last piece I made in San Cresci started with a couple of photos I grabbed from fashion blogs. I mixed the images of 2 women wearing designs in black and white together, as I do, and dug through my collection of recent photos from my adventures in Milan, Bologna, and Florence. I mixed in colorful textures and another data visualization image that looked like a spiral and started to sense the soul of this woman coming forward. It felt like she was strong, and moving out of chaos with each stride. Maybe that is a part of me.

Sometimes I get inspired by events that I had read about on social media. Unfolding in the US were events prompted by another high school shooting. As I worked, I thought about a Latina I had read about who has become the face of the youth march and movement against gun violence in high schools. Her name is Emma Gonzales. She became controversial to the conservative right, and some crazy “photoshopped” fake news was populated with her tearing up the US Constitution. She was a victim of the shooting and now was being victimized for political reasons. So, I drove the facial features her direction, found a photo of a poster from the march that says “You will never have the comfort of our silence again” and integrated it into the background in a way that you can’t read it. I am political, but don’t necessarily want my art to be screaming politics. I know it is there, and what it means. I feel right looking at her. I can’t wait to get this printed and experiment with analog media.