Um… Holy Crap.

There is so much to catch up on I don’t even know where to begin. I arrived in Zofingen, Switzerland last Wednesday to start my artist residency (which has turned out to be part residency, part internship). I had decided to stay in Hallstatt and had a wonderful time hiking and lounging in the sun. I took the 7am train and got to my destination 11 hours and four trains later… long and exhausting day. Heinz Aeschlimann, who is the artist I am working with, picked me up from the train station and took me on a whirlwind tour of he and Gertrud’s house, the facilities at his business (which produces and lays asphalt), and the grounds at St. Urban. I have two places I can live/work. The first option is to stay with them at their house and work at in the company studio, which I have been doing thus far. Later on I will stay and work at St. Urban, where they have a huge old building that used to be an insane asylum and has been converted into a private museum, apartment, and work studio. I only got to run through there the once and I can’t wait to go back and explore. It looked like they had some amazing artwork on display.

Heinz and Gertrud are amazingly nice and generous people. We have been going out to very nice restaurants almost every night, having hundred dollar bottles of wine and the most delicious food. I am definitely going to come home twenty pounds heavier. This past weekend we drove two hours down to their house in Ticino, which is in the southern part of Switzerland. We drove over the Alps instead of going through the 10 mile long tunnel under them. The scenery is amazing, very green and rocky. Their grounds in Ticino are ridiculously beautiful. It took Heinz twelve years to convert the property from a little farm house and barns to a garden paradise. There are four houses on the property, and I got to stay in my own little cottage. I did a lot of sketching and planning for future work and made some paper drafts for a laser cutting project with steel. Also did a lot of hiking and rode a rollercoaster/bobsled ride… took some video, so if I can figure out how to post it I will.

Heinz is probably one of the most active people I have ever met. He gets more done in one day than I could do in a week. For starters he gets up ridiculously early. When we drove back up Monday morning we hit the road at 4am. I have been getting to work at 7am, which is late for him, incredibly early for me. I have been working 12 hour days and after one week am about ready to drop over dead… don’t know how he does it. Heinz also flies planes, drives formula one cars, has been helicoptered onto mountains to ski down them, owns five companies, and still somehow has time to make sculptures.

So far in my residency I have been playing with a bunch of different materials, such as tar, asphalt, welding, foam, glass foam, etc. The first two weeks are going to be spent experimenting (Heinz gave me a spreadsheet that pretty much has every minute of every day planned out for what I am learning/doing, I am surprised that bathroom breaks aren’t on there… very organized.) The third week I start making my own art. I have a few ideas in mind and am trying to figure out if I want to depart drastically from my usual work and use this as an opportunity to work in a more minimal and formal style, or if I want to continue in the vein of some of my past body work. Maybe a combination of both.

I’m sure there are lots of things that I am overlooking, but now I have to go home and die of exhaustion. I spent 12 hours welding frames on some huge pyramid shaped molds for Heinz…. Tomorrow we are going to cast large asphalt sculptures in them.