`

The International Contemporary Art Guide aims to present a summary of the artistic
projects developed during 2014 at Arte Studio Ginestrelle International artist residency,
located in the Regional Park of Mount Subasio.
The projects are exhibited collectively at one of the most prestigious galleries in the
heart of the city of Assisi, UNESCO World Heritage site.
The exhibition and the production of this guide are proudly supported by the Council of
Assisi, Mayor of Assisi Claudio Ricci, Virginia Mallon, Maggio Ventura, and the Nassau
County Sheriff's Department Columbia Association Cultural and Educational Corporation
Disciplines: literary, visual and performing arts, design, architecture, fiber art, sound art
and video projects.
Assisi,
the UNESCO
WorldStudio
HeritageGinestrelle
Site
Exhibition
curated
by Arte

Art Gallery Le Logge, Piazza del Comune, Assisi

Opening reception on Sunday, 30th November 2014, 5 p.m.
The exhibition will run through the 8th of December 2014

Assisi, UNESCO World Heritage Site

2014
AUSTRALIA
Kate Stead
Trish Verdouw

SOUTH KOREA
Jang-yeun Jun
Hye Weon Shim

AUSTRIA
Anna Maria Mackowitz
Gitti Schneider

SPAIN
Flix J. Velando

BELGIUM
Sandrine de Borman

SWEDEN
Ann-Marie Bckstrm
Anders Jakobsson

BRAZIL
Matheus Rocha Pitta

SWITZERLAND
Sonja Lotta Forster

CANADA
Carol McQuaid
Rebecca Munce

TAIWAN
Chung-Ying Huang

CHINA
Yvonne Yuenman Lo
GERMANY
Judith Mann
Lisa M. Stybor
FINLAND
Kati Hiekkapelto
Sami Liuhto
Nina Mattila
Matti Maukonen
Anne Mls
FRANCE
Sarah Marguier
INDIA
Kalpana Subramanian
JAPAN
Seiko Tachibana
Kiyoka Tezuka
LATVIA
Eduards Mihelovis
POLAND
Ewa Kutermak-Madej
RUSSIA
Alexandr Davydov

UNITED KINGDOM
Barbara Jones
Mitch Karunaratne
Stella Whalley
URUGUAY
Margarita Muiz
UNITED STATES
Rashid Akmanov
Jeff Beekman
Laura BenAmots
Linda Luise Brown
Norlynne Coar
Katie Cortese
Iwona Duszek
Roman Duszek
Lynda Frese
Gary Green
Diana J. Jones
Christine LoFaso
Mary Jo Mann
Peter Mauss
Anne Murray (U.S./IRELAND)
Thomas Murray
Phyllis Odessey
Susan O'Malley
Rachel VanWylen
LiDoa Wagner
David Walters
L. Martina Young
Anastasia Zheleznaya

KATE STEAD
Prayer to Saint Francis
As a child in a small country town of rural N.S.W., Australia, all I knew of Italy was that it kicked Sicily
into the sea.
However, as a Catholic child, I did know something of Saint Francis
of Assisi. I knew he loved the animals, and for that reason, he
became my favourite saint.
I learnt little of Francis's story but I came to relate to him on a daily
basis with a prayer dedicated to him. Lord, make me a channel of
thy peace... it begins, and although its author is unknown, its
sentiment, it turns out, reflects the very essence of the life Francis
lived. It is a beautiful prayer that Simple Prayer, but my most often
expressed plea is dear Saint Francis, please help the animals.
It has been my privilege to realise a long-held dream to vist the
home of Saint Francis, to walk in his footsteps on Mt. Subasio and to
sit in the profound serenity of the church of San Damiano. With me,
I brought pictures of a variety of Australian birds and animals
foreign perhaps to Umbrian eyes, but not to the heart of Saint
Francis of Assisi.
In the enchanted gardens of Arte Studio Ginestrelle, I worked with watercolours on small sheets of
Arches paper, accumulating images of Australian fauna like snippets of my childhood thoughts and
notions of the man who loved animals. Then came the irresistible appeal of the context within which
now found myself the Umbrian landscape too grand, too magnificent for me to depict, but
approachable via its small details such as its poppies, grasses, roses and of course its ubiquitous
ginestra.
The result is a collage that marries my remote childhood experience with those elements I have been
blessed to perceive within the environment of the true, Earthly home of my favourite saint.
This is my prayer to San Franscesco dAssisi.
Kate Stead
katestead2@gmail.com

TRISH VERDOUW
On the Road

Walking...................the ability to move around from place to place; to move about or travel on foot
for exercise or pleasure.
There is many physical or psychological reasons for walking. For some walking is an exercise in
mindfulness, reflection, seeking answers, for
adventure, discovery or exercise and pleasure.
For others its an opportunity to escape from the
busyness of life and its expectations, or to
escape from war, persecution, displacement or
traumatic experiences.
Walking has the ability to characterise and shape
life, freedom and opportunity.
My project's aim was to explore and experience
the act of walking and the reasons people take
'the journey' or 'pilgrimage'. My intention was to focus on walking in the footsteps of St Francis of
Assisi; in particular to walk the Camino in Spain. I began walking from Leon and followed the Camino
road to Santiago (275km) interacting with other 'pilgrims' on the way, asking a simple question: why
are you walking the Camino? It was clear that for each person I asked, the reason was personal and
unique: a spiritual journey, a life changing experience or just for the walk.
Personally some days the road was never ending and the burden great due to blisters, swelling, aches
and pain of the feet and legs. The act of walking was a time of reflection and thoughtfulness.
Through this series of works I was able to
retrace the steps I walked on the Camino and
Assisi. The process became quite cathartic as
each line and mark represented a step on the
road.
www.trishverdouw.com

ANNA MARIA MACKOWITZ

My paintings are a confession to the unpredictable and the
unutterable. Where words can't be said, colors find their way.
The interaction of tranquility and movement, light and darkness,
limitless and bounded space evolves on the canvas, color over
color, layer over layer, elementary and direct. In the rhythm
tracks are made, undone, overlapped, broken, contoured, light,
playful or heavy.
Gesture shall exhibit itself, forms evolve, expand and dissolve
again, nothing is possessed, like the flow of ideas and memories
is not stopped, but soaked with emptiness.
When meanings end, there is a chance, for something to happen,
what is not suppressed by the will. Always steps into the unknowing.
' the silence of monte subasio'
for me, the essence of silence is giving up any purpose (John Cage)

To approach the quality of presence and purposelessness is the meeting point of our artistic activities.
The contemplation of the perceived was the starting point of our painting.
The cooperation in a unusual place gave us the opportunity to exit the boundaries of the known and
to go into dialog with deeper layers of ourselves.
Anna Maria Mackowitz and Gitti Schneider
www.annamaria-mackowitz.at
Sponsored by

GITTI SCHNEIDER
Its always about command and resolution, until the end of a
free space is won, where emotions of trusted association are
gone.
Spaces in between, realities in between, hindering perceptions
to become defined that's opening new spaces. Always close
to the known, coming close to clear associations, but never
getting there, elsewhere perceptions must be in known or rare
spaces in between.
' the silence of monte subasio'
for me, the essence of silence is giving up any purpose
(John Cage)
To approach the quality of presence and purposelessness is the meeting point of our artistic
activities.
The contemplation of the perceived was the starting point of our
painting.
The cooperation in a unusual place gave us the opportunity to
exit the boundaries of the known and to go into dialog with
deeper layers of ourselves.
Gitti Schneider and Anna Maria Mackowitz
www.gittischneider.at
Sponsored by

SANDRINE DE BORMAN
Fibre artist, Brussel, Belgium
Working with paper pulp and textile, natural elements and pleasure.
Asking by my creations the relations we have with the world around us.
These creations, I call ITERS; iter in Latin means journey and
path. There are herbariums, printed from the juice of plants ;
leaves, flowers and berries gleaned are hammered on the
fabric, and fixed. These ITERS are also a stroll-scroll -of parchemin in French- rolled around a wooden dawell. Each one
tells the history of an itinerary with the date and place of the
collecting walk, and sometimes the Latin botanical names of
the plants. Its a travel diary in the vegetable world, which
invites us to look carefully at the plants around us. Some
ITERS have texts; others have not. Some become an artists
book, or a wall hanging traces of a walk.
AT ARTE STUDIO GINESTRELLE, I wondered and gleaned gallnuts on the branches of so various
oaks around us. I reproduced the traditional natural ink with gallnuts, used during the Middle
Ages and Renaissance in Europe, and I wrote texts on the ITERS with it.
The ITERS of my walks around Ginestrelle are
various: I climbed up to the church of Santa Maria di
Lignano (blue metamorphosis), around the splendid
village of Armenzano where the wise Guerrino
guided us (Guerrino, gardien de la mmoire des
lieux), around Perugia, the radiant Assisi and the
garden El Pinciowhere I sauntered between culture
(and what Culture!) and nature (and what Nature!).

www.sandrinedeborman.be
sandrine.deborman@gmail.com

MATHEUS ROCHA PITTA

Non c pane

Matheus Rocha Pitta often uses food in his sculptures, photographs and installations to
investigate the nature of value. During the two weeks in studio ginistrelle he rehearsed and
investigated a new sculpture, a bread that it is not.
Informed by the ancient legend of the mannah, the bread that fell from the sky during the 40
years that the Jewish people wandered in the desert, Rocha Pitta poetically created a bread
that is filled with sand. Once the loaf is opened, shared, the sand the very same sand that
constitute a desert just vanishes, asserting that there is no bread.
Instant film was used to document the use of the bread, thus reinforcing the transient nature of
the object of the bread that does not exist.
camofo@uol.com.br

CAROL MCQUAID
Printmaking at Arte Studio Ginestrelle
As a Canadian artist working primarily in painting/printmaking, I found the sense of history in
the landscapes and cityscapes of Italy to be a strong inspiration for my work at Arte Ginestrelle.
I gathered sketches done during this trip and
employed centuries old printmaking techniques to
hand produce a series of images in the airy attic
studio. These pieces develop over time; sketching,
transferring and carving the images, inking, printing
and painting each one by hand. As they develop,
they gather the energy and memories of the entire
experience.
There are 10 pieces in the series, which are now
showing in Canada alongside a similar series of
Vancouver images as a contrast and compare of
two cultures. While the subject matter for the
Italian pieces was captured en route to Assisi
(primarily Rome and Perugia), the finished works
are largely impacted by my experiences at
Ginestrelle and in Assisi's historical center, with it's
beautiful winding streetscapes, churches, print
shops and galleries.
This experience has impacted me as an artist in ways I did not expect and I'm very grateful for
the opportunity.

www.carolmcquaidart.com
www.sketchalina.blogspot.com
carolmcquaid@me.com

REBECCA MUNCE
My drawings often situate themselves in urban environments taken from my own experiences.
They are often exaggerations of violence or sexuality to communicate emotions and memories
with the viewer.
I sometimes think of a viewer as my closest person in which I can confide in. For this reason
they continuously reflect intimacies or details that contribute to ones history. I have always
been deeply interested in narrative and
found myself listening to the history and
contents of this residency. The stories
regarding its refurnishing and the
attention to an objects aesthetic
interested me in its contribution to the
identity of the residency itself. During my
stay at Arte Studio Ginestrelle I studied
the relationship between the object and
its owner, how this relationship is formed,
why we surround ourselves with objects,
and what do those objects say about our
identities.

rebeccamunce.com
muncerebecca@gmail.com

YVONNE YUENMAN LO
Composite scenes documenting artist Kalpana Subramanians stay in Arte Studio Ginestrelle,
August, 2014
During one month residency in August, Yvonne has developed personal visual vocabularies and
story-telling narratives to create works inspired by frescos paintings in Assisi, surroundings of
neighboring medieval town, natural
landscape of Mount Subasio, and
different characters of her residency
friends.
Her recent works are derived from
visual stimuli found in her most
immediate
surroundings
when
travelling around in leisure and at
work. Images of specific area,
period, media, and social context are used as elements to elicit question and reflection from
the viewers. Her works serve as meditations on singular moments of personal contention to
visualize and intensify the intangible reality by fragmentation. Her work intends to create the
tension between images and the in-between meanings of signs.
yvonloyuenman@yahoo.com
www.hongkongartweb.com
Support from Hong Kong Baptist University

JUDITH MANN
Fire Circle Ball
My first AIR period will always be something special.
When I arrived at Ginestrelle it was raining and
everything started to become green. The tree
cutting people started a fire to burn the tree
cutting leftovers.
So I decided to run the fire 28 days during my
whole stay.
I got up early every day to set the fire alive
again, fill the air with smoke and feed it with
patience.
When I managed to set it up to a nice bonfire I buried it with ashes to preserve it.
Strolling through the hills around Ginestrelle I found the perfect clay in a pig pond. So I started
to put clay balls into the fire. I used the fire ashes, the charcoal, the burned clay as colour
pigments. And I started to cut circles into the Ginestrelle jungle behind Ginestrelle. To see them
you have to visit the residence.

judith.mann@effektschmiede.de
www.effektschmiede.de

LISA M. STYBOR
Artist and Professor at Dessau
Germany, Hochschule Anhalt / Department of Design
MONTE SUBASIO
...never I saw the Mount Subasio in this way in spring. The last year it rained and snowed for
months. This time it feels like may. Lightness takes center. A high level of transparency and once
in a while a fine movement in the air set aside all heaviness; the silence gets a name by the
motion of leaves.

I am sitting far above the house on a hill, with view to this great mighty mountain. It is about
half past five in the evening. The MONTE SUBASIO seems to float.

www.stybor.de

KATI HIEKKAPELTO & MATTI MAUKONEN

Finnish artists, writers and musicians

Our stay in Arte Studio Ginestrelle was a starting point to our project: writing a theater play.
We are going to make play about an author Matti Hlli who
lived and worked in the same island of Hailuoto where we
live. Project will take couple years and it includes lots of
background work. like interviewing people, reading books
and articles, collecting data etc.
In Assisi we mainly read Hllis novels and also many
theater plays. Peaceful surroundings were perfect for our
silent work. In the first book I read in Ginestrelle,
Hlli mentioned Saint Fransiscus. It felt like a blessing for
our project.

katihiekka@gmail.com
mattis.maukonen@pp.inet.fi

SAMI LIUHTO
During my two-month residency at Arte Studio Ginestrelle in March - April 2014 I worked on
two books, and receipt collecting. Draft for the first book, The March Book, was completed 3rd
of April in Vatican City. The manuscript contains six notebooks and 786 pages. 700 pages of the
manuscript are written without paragraph changes. My aim was to write everything when I was
awake (I am still working on my sleep-writing).
Writing of the second book, The April Book, I
started 4th of April and ended 2nd of May when
my airplane landed back in Finland. The April
Book contains haiku, palindrome poetry, word
squares, light-modernistic poetry, etc. The layout
for the printed version will be a mixture of
scanned notes and notes typed and revised. I
also will include for the April Book some of my
asemic writings I made in Arte Studio Ginestrelle,
but metro poetry, which I wrote in Rome, Naples
and Milan will be published in my metro poetry
collection.
Tommi Parkko gave me an idea for collecting
receipts and now I have three full envelopes of
receipts from Assisi, Florence, Rome, Naples,
Capri etc. Too late I warned Tommi that I usually
take jokes very seriously.
Undoubtedly the best part of the residency was
to meet other artists, mainly visual artists, from
ceramics to organic costume designing. I felt
freedom of art which I have not found in my home country. Thank you Sarah, Hye Won, Carol,
Lisa, Judith, Anne, Mitch, Sonja, Anders, Ann-Marie, Kati, Matti!

Sliuhto@gmail.com
www.samiliuhto.com

NINA MATTILA
Ups and Downs - a 4000 kilometers long journey

A small and cute pink hippopotamus has

traveled with me for almost 4000 kilometers
around Italy and Finland. We have been on the
Alps and dipped our toes in some lakes and seas
and we have witnessed economical and cultural
differences.
Obviously every country wants to show itself as
beautiful and wealthy as possible but there's
always the other side: The harsh truth that
things aren't going as good as they should.
This photo series is about these ups and downs.
Big things look small and small looks big in the
right perspective. It is all about seeing the reality
of our most valuable assets. The life itself.

www.ninamattila.com

ANNE MLS
Writer, poet, journalist, performer
Finland

I focused mainly on creating material for a new novel based in Italy. During one month I came
up with about 90 pages and figured out what the book might be about. I also had vivid dreams.
Atmosphere in Ginestrelle was peaceful, relaxed
and supportive: a perfect place to commit
oneself to artistic work.
Ginestrelle also gave me a possibility to use the
attic studio and some art materials so that I could
do paintings and drawings. Besides I wrote some
ten poems and had multiple ideas.
Externally it was quiet but mentally the most
colorful period, like becoming a playing child for
one sweet, worriless month.

anne.molsa@koti.fimnet.fi

SARAH MARGUIER
Costume and visual artist, born in France, living and working in Berlin.
Working as a free-lance costume, set and visual artist since 2010, her works orients towards
reused materials and the traces left by natural and artificial objects.
She has worked as a costume, set, light and visual designer in pieces and performances in
Chicago, Paris, Berlin, Freiburg, Leipzig, Grenoble, St John (Canada), Assisi (Italy), and has been
exhibited at the SAIC of Chicago, Sandbox loft (Chicago) and Muse du Quai Branly (Paris)
through a partnership with the ENSAD.

In 2013, She created What remains, a research platform composed of a variety of artistic
projects, exploring how creation can become a physical bond to materialize and witness the
Traces of life as time passes and experiences accumulate.
Her creation is determined by her devotion to capture and assimilate the Traces left by natural
phenomenons as well as man-made objects as they are being used by people. Notably, her
poetic realm is deeply influenced by organic forms, the way they morphed in reaction to their
surroundings, or decay in time. Her designs are also characterized by the incorporation of
reused materials in honor of the emotional charge they once embodied in a "past life".
During her time in Arte Studio Ginestrelle, she developed a collection of headressings, Pilgrims,
created throughout natural elements she found around her in the nature of Mount Subasio
area, traces of the seasons passing.

www.sarahmarguier.com

KALPANA SUBRAMANIAN
Kalpana Subramanian is an artist and filmmaker
from India. She graduated from the National
Institute of Design in 2000. Her short films have be
showcased widely have won awards and
recognition. As part of the core team at Sacred
World Research Laboratory she was instrumental
in creation and interpretation of visual content for
exhibits and museums that bridges traditional
knowledge cultures with new media technologies.
She won the UK environmental Film Fellowship
2006. Apart from teaching design and film at Pearl
Academy, Kalpana is also a vocalist and published authour of childrens books.
Epitaphs
An epitaph is generally a short text honouring a deceased person. These epitaphs are more like
abrupt statements or fragments of conversation that assume an air of exalted self-importance
owing to their visual representation. They explore my personal emotions
as an artist in process of self-healing that involves figurative burials of sorts.During my stay in
Umbria, I have seen several tombs, sarcophagi and cinerary that remind me of the historical
significance of death rituals. My impressions of frescos, especially their depiction of human
gesture, ornamentation, scale and narrative, inform this work even if through lightheartedness
and irony.
Portraits from Assisi
Inspired by the setting, spaces and wonderful people I met at Arte Studio Ginestrelle I created
portraits of the local community, staging symbolic narratives, using allegorical gestures, objects
and symbols to create images and movements. The imagery borders fiction and the real, and
tare are inspired by Italian art, especially the frescos or Perugino and Giotto. Portrait of Yvonne
Lo in Assisi is one of the first images from this series, that is explored through time and image.
Woven landscapes
These multiple exposure photographs interweave images of Umbrian landscapes and nature
with the geometries of handcrafted fabrics, combining forms, light and textures to create poetic
visualizations that express the beauty of
an experienced moment. Fabrics, laces,
found objects and my drawings have been
used to create some of these images.

kalpana.subramanian@icloud.com

SEIKO TACHIBANA
Visual artist
born in Japan, lives and works in San Francisco Bay Area, USA
MFA San Francisco Art Institute
MA & BA in Art and Education, Kobe University
If each of our actions has a reason, then our actions must have meaning. And so it is with the
lines, dots, and other elements that I use in my artworkeach has a reason, and a
meaning. My work is informed and inspired by memories and by the experiences of everyday
life, translated both consciously and subconsciously into the elements that comprise my
work. All that I perceive and experience through my senses is filtered by the lens of my
personality, sifted through the sieve of time, and distilled in the creative act. In this way, my art
becomes my history and stands as a testament to my existence and that of the world in which I
live.

My marks often employ circles and lines as metaphors for cells and organs. The circle represents
the natural duality of the infinite whole, and suggests the constant balancing forces of Yin
andYang. and lines in connection represents nerves and vines.
I came to Arte Studio Ginesterelle in Assisi in order to focus on a long-term project entitled pn-c, for plant-nerve-cell. During my stay, the landscape, the buildings, and the flow of daily life
have inspired me to create a piece dedicated to this special place. The small work entitled
Assisi in the exhibition is about my new relationship with the amazing region Umbria and its
people that has been forged during my residency.

www.seikotachibana.com

KIYOKA TEZUKA
Holy Landscape

In my art works I have used Chinese paper through which light can pass. The images depict the
Umbrian landscape and capture the energy of the Holy Land. In the wood sculpture l am
responding to the beauty of the stained glass windows of the Basilica de San Francesco. The
wood was found in the forest in le Ginestrelle.
My works are an expression of the sacred quality of this place.

monlapain@yahoo.co.jp

EDUARDS MIHELOVIS
Painter, photographer
B.Arch., Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia
I am mostly a landscape painter. In my work I am constantly moving from realistic
representation to abstract, and from abstract to realistic; however working in a realistic way
en plein air is my preferred practice. Trees
and elements of geometry in the landscape
are recurring themes in my work. Previously
to painting I've done black and white
photography that centered around those
themes as well.
During my project at Ginestrelle I was in
contact with this primeval landscape
around, or rather with layers of landscape
that make allusions to different times in
history at different nearby places: the
landscape of Mt. Subasio, that can be
associated with prehistoric times; the landscape of nearby Spello, that sends you back to
biblical times; the view of the plain, that is modern and at the same time geometrically
timeless; and the distinctly medieval feeling of Perugia, replete with ornamental signs and
painterly walls. My project was to find geometries in that landscape that interest me, to
represent them in a gestural way, and to look for ways to introduce abstract color in
predominantly green-and-blue mountainous scenery.

www.emih.net

EWA KUTERMAK-MADEJ
I am very interested in Italy especially after my 3-month scholarship to Italy in 1990. Italy 's
light and landscapes are different than in Poland. After my stay in Italy my artistic view was
definitely changed. In Poland in 1990 the atmosphere was very dark and sad. After returning to
my country colours of my paintings became brighter so it can be said that my previous stay in
Italy changed my painting style.
Now I am feeling that once more I'm in need of
this kind of awakening, new point of view to
benefit my work, infusion with culture, art,
different colours, forms. The most interesting
elements of my painting ate colour, mystic light,
undefined space. All these artistic components
are present in Italy and even ordinary tourists
appreciate this, not to mention artists for whom it
provides nourishment for their creative process.
During my stay in Assisi, I painted sets of works which elements could be compared between
themselves. For instance: landscapes of Tuscany and different ones in Umbria; old architecture
like in Assisi and nature.
Different trees, flowers, animals, colours and light.
I liked to analyze old symbols and signs. Assisi is a special place for my research and could be
used in this kind of activity. Earthquake and Assisi's rebuilding is fascinating subject to paint
too.

ewakutermakmadej@gmail.com
Sponsored by
Akademia Sztuk Piknych im.
Jana Matejki w Krakowie

ALEXANDR DAVYDOV
Writer, editor, Moscow
The novel about St. Francis

Alexandr Davydov, a member of PEN-international and the Union of writers of Moscow, is the
author of the books of philosophical prose: Apocrypha or the dream of the Angel (M., 1997),
Story of nameless spirit and black mother (M., 2005), 49 days with native souls (M., 2005),
Three steps to myself (M., 2005), Witness of the life (M., 2006), Genius of
Contemporaneity (M., 2009) and others. Editor-in-chief of literary and philosophical magazine
Kommentarii (Commentaries).
He is going to write the first in Russia novel about St. Francis of Assisi, whose personality, life,
activity and preaching he has been interested in for a long time.
Besides studying the literature about St. Francis and his life it was necessary for him to visit the
places where St. Francis had been born and had lived because the most detailed descriptions
wont help him to imagine the city of Assisi, which, as it is asserted, has changed very little
since that time, and natural environment where St. Francis had lived. During his stay in the Arte
Studio Ginestrelle he saw first of all the Basilica of San Francesco with famous frescos of Giotto
and Cimabue and other churches connected with the name of St. Francis, and also the house
where he had been born.
Alexandr Davydov is sure that the atmosphere of Assisi and its environment, full of the spirit of
St. Francis, will help him to find the right style for his work, the first drafts of which he started
writing in Arte Studio Ginestrelle.

davydoaleksandr@yandex.ru
www.davydov.commentmag.ru

JANG-YEUN JUN
Working in Seoul, London
MA Fine Art, Chelsea College of Fine Art, London, UK
The Stage of the daily life
My installations often resemble stages with
props, where viewers as actors read their
narratives while passing through images and
objects I have placed. I am also concerned with
decontextualized figures, and objects as figures,
and figures as objects defamiliarize our scenes
of daily life in visual language.
As I conclude my studio work for one month
residency, I would like to write some of what I
observed in Assisi.
I came to here with the intention of having a temporal stay, to observe the new in ordinary life.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

The first day, extreme silence contrasting noisy city life like vacuum space.
Empty room without objects, rectangular furniture.
Geometric patterns and Giottos perspective, the line of the arch frame.
A listener inside brutal confession cube (room) in Basilica.
Italian hand gestures.
Modernism in shape of radiators.
Mini-metro and its overview of urban design in Perugia, terms of Utopia.
Still costumed local festival participants in the local pizzeria.
A leg on the long sitting chair in waiting room of Assisi train station.
The last day, a repetitive bug sound at middle of night for video clips.

During residency I worked with photograph and moving image; visualizing objects (interior) and
body, which will become part of the complete installation.

www.jangyeunjun.com
jang611@gmail.com

HYE WEON SHIM

Between Two Breath; Ginestrelle

Of the four seasons, my clay work is Spring. It is flower not fruit. A tender sprout can push a
little bit up out of cold clay during the winter. The clay takes a breath and drinks water from
the ground, and soaks in the sunshine. I give it soul in the form of honey, and bone in the form
of straw.
Ginestrelle in Italy. Its name is a yellow flower of spring as well. Here I write a short poem;
I am who have a black hair sing a song with ginestrelle.
With the pollen and honey of yours, my voice is with you
Even poisoned by a bee gathering them,
I am happy
The title of my work, Between Two Breath; Ginestrelle is about conversation between mortal
and immortal or material and sprit. I have tried to express of what it is to be immortal with the
temporal material clay. I see quiet motions growing in harmony with the flower ginestrelle,
and this serene transformation inspires a poetical response in me. The pollen and honey of
ginestrelle are used, and poetically abstracting the empty vessel forms are interpreted. The
placement with the yellow empty vessels forms on the ground at the corner serves to remind
us of entrance from which life spring from and death takes us back to -

hshim01@risd.edu

FLIX J. VELANDO
Screenwriter and Writer
M.A. in screenwriting
Universidad Autnoma de Barcelona

I stayed at Arte Studio Ginestrelle two weeks in August 2014,

writing my third book, a novel.
The novel is about a teenager who travels every summer to the
town of his grandparents. This will be a decisive summer, in
which everything will change for different events in his life. It is
an intimate novel, told in first person, in which the memories of
that summer mix with the present of that teenager, now an
adult.

felixjv@hotmail.com

ANNE-MARIE BCKSTRM & ANDERS JAKOBSSON

My Face, My History
During our three-week stay at Ginestrelle we wanted to put focus on making portraits of people
who have chosen to live in this special area. We also wanted to get totally new input and
inspiration from this world-heritage area to develop new artistic ideas.
We found the place to be astonishingly tranquil,
beautiful and special in countless ways. Through the
superior hospitality given by the members the residency,
fresh creativeness and enthusiasm were given to our
ongoing and future work. We had the chance to follow
traditions and see ways of taking care of growth and the
use of regional products.
In this mountainous region it was easy to find lovely
tracks and views, people are kind and generous. We
have had the fortune to make some unique portraits
from Umbria which will give us extraordinary material
for our future exhibition and book. Our project, My
Face-My History has grown during this journey with
fresh knowledge and new artistic experience. It has been a great fortune to come and develop
thoughts in this environment you; almost feel the ancient footsteps still wandering aroundor
was it the seismic activity we had one of the nights?
Our stay at Art Studio Ginestrelle has inspired us in our work in a very positive way and the
Italian and especially Umbrian culture will travel with us to new people and places.

seakayak@telia.com
annmarie62@live.se
www.annmarie62.wix.com/ateljea-m

SONJA LOTTA FORSTER

Visual Artist, Switzerland

Your are all that I am not, 2014

The piece You are all that I am not is a
series of photographs made during the
Residency at Arte Studio Ginestrelle in spring
2014. The work is a one of four projects that
is shown under the title Nothing matters
more than what never happened in the
autumn in Switzerland.
My work is based on the idea of four different kinds of frustrations (as found in the he book
Missing out, in praise of the unlived life by Adam Phillips).
All my life I have not really believed in religion. It is non-existing for me. With this background
and the following sentence from the book; The frustration of being deprived of something that
has never existed, I started my work here. It is a discussion about the known and the unknown.
They are daily used objects, which combine the mystic and religious surroundings that I found
myself in while being here. Its an attempt to see the familiar and the non-existing together in
everyday life.

www.sonjalotta.com
sonja@sonjalotta.com

CHUNG-YING HUANG
Cosa significa SUONO? Cosa significa LUCE?

Since 2012, one of my sound projects Sounding focuses on what people feel about, and how
they define sound. Beyond science, I tried to explore the question what is sound? Before
arriving in Europe for my first time, I wondered about the qualities of SOUND and LIGHT I would
encounter here in this ancient part of the world which contains the origins of Western art.
During my residency in Assisi, I
have been touched by all sorts
of incredible sounds in churches,
nature, and in the villages. In the
Basilicas, I have seen glorious
light created by the beautiful
stained glass windows, and
reflected by the wonderful
frescoes.
Somehow, those experiences
didnt give me an answer about
what is SOUND and LIGHT; on
the contrary, it revealed to me a
new philosophical and aesthetic
perspective.
Everything fades and dies, including LIGHT and SOUND, but sometimes, these ethereal forces
are captured and preserved in artworks that offer an eternal quality.
This is especially so within inspired and religious works such as those I have experienced in Italy.

huang.chungying0503@gmail.com
chung-ying.blogspot.tw
Sponsored by

BARBARA JONES
Nothing prepares one for Mt Subasio or the religious art of Assisi.
Here bounteous nature abuts sublime creation; their shared genius:
an aristocratic beauty. If the landscape of Mt Subasio is tough, it is
also generous. It is a place of wonders steeped in Franciscan
spirituality. Its shy fauna is sensed but rarely seen, its abundant
flora ever-changing. A thousand varieties of insect; small, delicate
flowers. The very air is perfumed with the ginestre flower.
In Assisi, the great buildings which house the
religious art inspire awe. Inside, the power, the
grandeur and beauty of the frescoes of Giotto,
Martini, Lorenzetti and Cimabue stun the
viewer into humility. The boldness of the
colours amazes.

From these dual wellsprings, I developed my work.

Capo Fruit and Box of Cardoons
Our beautiful location invited the making of work in the tradition of Arte Povera, that movement of
borrowed beauty, of tribute to the humble and to once- functional objects now fallen, disused and
broken. Ginestre twigs, old fruit boxes, a fallen nest, leaves, cones, cardoons. The labour of birds is
here redeployed. The cardoons came from the olive grove of Adria And Enzo, the ginestre from the
Mt Subasio forest. The cardoons blazing colour has faded somewhat but they retain their
distinctive form; the ginestre has dried and holds the cardoons in place. In employing artful artifice,
new hybrid objects emerged whose imaginative conjunctions engender fresh meaning.
Tre Cypressi Sacri not exhibited
Legend has it the cypress tree represents the eternal flame, hence its use close to cemeteries. This
is a fantasy landscape of stylized cypresses, terracotta earth, startling blue sky, and the red of the
ubiquitous poppy.
Marinas Beans
The food Marina and Adria prepared for us was artisanal, sensual and
proud; but never self-conscious. This painting pays homage to the
bounty of the Umbrian soil, the colours of the frescoes; shells, oaks
and poplars. One morning at breakfast at La Ginestrella, Marina
presented us with a basket of large fresh Fava beans in their pods.
What pleasure to eat them raw. In a world where what is deemed to
be of value costs the earth, this simple earthy pleasure was priceless.

beaumontjones@hotmail.com

MITCH KARUNARATNE
Beyond the Fields

James Joyce penciled in the margins of the

manuscript of Ulysses, that "places
remember events". Place, for me, holds a
tremendous significance. It is within place
that histories are revealed, regional
identities formed, political, economic and
generational pressures are exerted. This
layering of sometimes competing, often
conflicting pressures create complex
pictures of how we relate to and
understand our place. For a long time my
work has been closely tied to my home
place, spaces I know well, have grown up
with, I culturally and socially understand and am part of. My residency in Assisi has enabled me
to explore these ideas in a very unfamiliar setting.
Photographs put place 'on show', they highlight and bestow meaning on places and the
relationship between people and the world around them. Throughout my time in Arte Studio
Ginestrelle, I have endeavored to create work which explores this layering, combining local
stories, vast landscapes, history and my own personal observations to gain greater
understanding of how the land holds and retells our stories.
www.mitchkarunaratne.co.uk

STELLA WHALLEY
I had no set agenda for this residency at Ginestrelle except the possibility of doing a yarn
installation and some drawings. The challenge was to work outdoors within the natural
environment, I am not a landscape artist, but have a love for the landscape and its flora and
fauna.
In Ant Corruption (glow in the dark yarn), I
became interested in the micro activities of
insects as well as the larger forms in the
silver yarn installation Tug of War. I wanted
to create a curved form between a tree and
a log, a connection between the living and
the dead, like how elephants caress their
carcasses.
The work created the illusion of shafts of
light through the trees as the light changed
at different times of the day. Lines, shimmers and rhythms were developed through a variety of
drawing processes, using ink, charcoal, gouache and silver leaf.
The black yarn installation was more of a response to the internal structure of the outdoor
studio.

www.stellawhalley.com

MARGARITA MUIZ

I came to Ginestrelle to develop a new book of poetry, entitled, Errante. Throughout this series
of poems, one journeys across the territory of the soul, confronted with solitude, love, and
anguish. The text is marked by the presence of Nature: her tastes and scents, her footprints,
etc.
To come to Ginestrelle, in reality, is to say, to live Ginestrelle. From the first moment, one is
transformed by the experience of living and working with other artists. The day begins with the
sound of birds singing, mingled with the smells of homemade breakfast and strong coffee.
Every element is considered down to the smallest detail to create this paradise in Mount
Subasio, where tranquility, the eternal presence of nature, and the paths through the woods,
all create an ideal ambiance for the creation of artistic endeavors.
This verse comes to mind, For the moment, Death is far away.

margaeme@gmail.com

RASHID AKMANOV
Visual Art, Graphic Design

This is a first time during a residency that I

took a different approach from a typical
one.
Usually I create a series of political and
social posters, but this time I took to
painting. However, it was hard to escape
my past as a poster artist and in my work I
Perugia the social poster concept was
reflected. I was deeply moved by the
surroundings and the landscapes at and
near Assisi, Perugia. And this is why I could
not literally get away from doing a work
reflecting this beauty wishing for Love and Peace for the whole wide world.
The second piece Defying Gravity reflects human intentions of obtaining freedom, their
doubts, and aspirations.

www.akmanart.com
akm_art7@mac.com

JEFF BEEKMAN
Visual Artist, Tallahassee, Florida, USA
BFA University of Florida
MFA University of New Mexico

Upon visiting the many beautiful chapels and churches scattered across Assisi and surrounding
areas, I became interested in how the natural world is depicted. Stretched across the interior skins
of worship sites, images of landscapes often serve as the
settings for the activities of saints, sinners and heavenly beings
in which to theatrically perform.
While undeniably lovely and overwhelming, I found I wanted to
puncture the walls of these churches. This was not out of any
violent impulse, but as a means to reintroduce the figures and
energies held within into the actual landscape that exists
beyond the walls and frames that currently house them.
Through the use of a small
digital projector, I have been
exploring what this might
look like. Figures extracted
from
a
variety
of
masterworks have been
projected into the trees
surrounding the Ginestrelle
residency site, in a way that honors both the source imagery and
the setting into which they are located. I hope that somewhere in
the fragility of the projections, and the relocating of these figures
within the columns of trees and the ever-changing dome of the
sky, the ephemerality of both image and setting invites a degree
of mystery back into the narratives.
Though very different in form from the work completed at
Ginestrelle, for many years I have made work investigating how humans impose themselves upon
the land. Previous artworks completed across the United States, China and New Zealand can be
found at my website: www.jeffbeekman.com
I am currently an Assistant Professor, Director of the BA Program & Area Head of Foundations in the
Department of Art at Florida State University. Without the support of Florida State University my
participation in this residency would not have been possible.

jbeekman@fsu.edu

LAURA BENAMOTS
Tempi e Segreti: Icons of the Anonymous Madonna
While in Umbria I became transfixed by the abundant images of the Madonna. From the
collectible prayer cards to Lippis majestic fresco cycle Life of the Virgin (Spoleto Cathedral), I
found myself asking: Who was the model? Who was the artist transferring into the image of the
Madonna? What was that womans story? Icons of the
Anonymous Madonna emerged from these questions. The
works do not offer answers but rather invite the questions. The
anonymous Madonnas surround us and call us to investigate
the women behind the iconic images.
From the series THE BRIDE and AMONG THE RUINS are exhibited in
the Assisi Gallery. THE BRIDE is layered hand stitched white
cotton and linen fabrics adorned with amulets, empty lockets,
and pearls while AMONG THE RUINS is with dark materials and
includes the peering eyes from vintage portraits of Italian
women.
A R T I S T B I O New York born painter BenAmots spent her
formative years in Israel. Her work has been exhibited in over
250 exhibitions including most recently The Colorado Springs
Fine Art Center, the Frost Art Museum in Miami Florida, and
the Museum of Contemporary Art & Design in San Jose, Costa
Rica. Awards & Honors include 2012 PPAC Visual Artist of the Year

www.ppcc.edu/departments/art/meet-the-faculty/
www.ppcc.edu/departments/art/ppcc-art-gallery/
Special thanks to Pikes Peak Community College
for their ongoing support

LINDA LUISE BROWN & DAVID WALTERS

Space, Line and Pattern: Representation and Abstraction in Umbrian Hill Towns
Our work at Ginistrelle illustrates the sequence of explorations made by an artist and an
architect working as a collaborative team to interpret the spaces and character typical of
Umbrian hill towns, long the subject of fascination by
both disciplines.
Our goal was to compress a multitude of sensory
experiences into a small compass, using drawings in
ink and gouache, both representational and abstract.
The sequence has five stages, three representational,
one purely abstract, and the final one an intentional
hybrid utilizing the medium of digital collage.
The series begins with a timed, 3-minute sketch to capture the essence of the place in simple
black-and-white line, followed by a much more detailed black-and-white study with a high
degree of representational accuracy. The third of these architectural stages all drawn from
the same vantage point creates a simplified, semi-abstracted version of the same scene. This
third stage provides the ground for the artists interpretation to be woven into the architectural
frame.
Parallel to this series of architectural depictions, is a fourth phase of the work, represented in
series of small-scale abstract compositions, painted in colored gouache. These works on paper
do not aim to represent reality; rather the abstracted tones, colors, and gestural marks are
derived from surface patterns of buildings and from elements of the Umbrian landscape.
In the fifth and final phase of the project,
we intersect representational and
abstract drawings to create a digital
hybrid composition. This final stage aims
to coalesce the two widely different
interpretations to celebrate the special
qualities that characterize the hill towns
of Umbria.

www.lindaluisebrown.com
www.davidwaltersriba.com
Sponsored by:

NORLYNNE COAR

Much of my recent work has been Meditations on Space

creative energy, infinity and the physics of space. Last
spring in Portugal, I was overwhelmed by the landscape
and began a series of paintings that focuses on trees
trees as the lungs of the earth, trees as a conduit for
moisture and oxygen from the air to the earth, and trees
connecting heaven and earth. In a sense, my focus on
trees has brought my meditations on space from the
conceptual down to earth.
Given my concern for the environment rising oceans,
disappearing forests and interminable droughts the
subject of trees has become central to my creative work.
In the south of France I have continued working on this
subject with unexpected results: my work in ceramics
expanded the scope of my imagery, and the light of
Vallauris filled my paintings with primitive intensity and whimsy.
Fallen porcelain leaves filled a boat put adrift; porcelain roots became a jellyfish that then
appeared in a painting, floating around an underwater tree; and Spanish black clay swimmers
joined in. All of a sudden I found myself back in the
light.
During my residency at Ginestrelle, working with both
painting and photography, I plan to continue focusing
on the subject of trees (inspired by the landscape of
Assisi) and the environment as a whole, but my
intention is to broaden the concept to celebrate the
trees of life, the ocean, the universe and our integral
part in what may be a dream.

www.NorlynneCoar.com

KATIE CORTESE
BA (English and Theatre), Skidmore College, 2002 MFA (Fiction)
Arizona State University, 2006 PhD in English (Fiction), Florida State University, 2013

I came to Ginestrelle to revise the first part of a historical

novel thats been in-progress since 2008. I wrote 30,000
words in three weeks, and am now better prepared to revisit
parts two through four. The book is titled LAND OF THE FREE
and opens in Magisano, Italy in the summer of 1914. Its first
part focuses on the life of Carina Tavola before she
emigrates to the Italian North End of Boston, Massachusetts,
where she witnesses some of Americas most formative
historical events, such as World War I, the Spanish Influenza
pandemic, and the Womens Suffrage Movement. The previous draft lacked the texture of life
necessary to transport readers to another time and place.
Prior to visiting Assisi, I felt paralyzed about describing Carinas surroundings. If I described a
dandelion, then I had to Google whether or not those particular flowers grew in Italy. Its no
surprise, then, that spending three weeks in Umbria has made me better versed in Italys flora
(butter-yellow ginestra blooms, fragrant Sambucus trees, wild stands of rosemary, sage, and
parsley) and fauna (boars, cuckoo birds, and the shy vipers that steer clear of humans), but an
added benefit was Dr. Marina Merlis knowledge (and patience) as she provided additional
historical and cultural context for my areas of interest. Even the residency building itself proved
essential in my efforts to describe daily life in a remote Italian farmhouse.
While the novel is still in-progress, my time at the Arte Studio has brought it light-years closer
to completion. That accomplishment, plus half a dozen revised and submitted short stories, a
handful of new flash pieces, and a published article in The Common (pictured) about touring
middle Italy made this one of the most productive and satisfying endeavors Ive taken in my
writing life. I am grateful to Texas Tech University for the generous research fund that made
this trip possible.

www.KatieCortese.com
Katie.Cortese@ttu.edu

IWONA DUSZEK
Senior Instructor at Art and Design Department Missouri State University Springfield,
Missouri, USA

The abundance of architecture and art, that one can find in

Italy is not only inspiring but also creating a desire for more
exploration to be made and a deeper knowledge and
understanding of history. Like in a strata which shows both
modeling and animated layers, once you started to peel them
off you would find even more layers underneath. It seems like
never ending process of building three-dimensional image
made of equally three-dimensional individual pieces that need
to fit with all their sides to make an image truly completed.
My original intention of looking for the relationships between
space and time, or more specifically between the place and
the moments started with looking for the characters, many of
them being women. Ordinary and extraordinary women, from
Vesta to Madonna, from Adria to Santa Chiara, each of them
marking "that" moment, as being much more important than
the space they appeared in. Multifaceted, with many tasks, talents, or perspectives to consider,
they became the focus of my visually layered narrative.
Using the language of forms and textures, I attempted to build and give to my characters their
own context by utilizing the photographs taken during the residency here, in Umbria. These
photographs engaged various sites, and fragments of
architecture. They served the purpose of bringing more
specific sense of belonging yet still remaining broadly
universal.
iwoduszek@sbcglobal.net
www.iwona-duszek.net
Sponsored by

ROMAN DUSZEK
MFA in Graphic Design
from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Poland.
Educator, graphic designer and photographer.
Professor Emeritus, Art and Design Department, Missouri State University.

The richness of architecture in Italy creates the

unlimited opportunities for a photographer. At the same
time, to choose between a document of architectural
style tarnished with time, or the architectural detail
playfully engaging into the conversation and making it
more than just an ordinary photo-note became my
ongoing task, while photographing in Umbria's towns.
My love for geometry, and the harmony of visual forces
had been tested each time I looked through the lenses.
The wealth of forms, textures and materials, doubled in
expression with the use of light, making the process
even more challenging, yet more and more fascinating.
To document the object beyond the clich meant to me
reaching for its essence using simplicity, since the
language of abstraction empowers the forms with more
universal values.
My creative work in Umbria had not been limited to
photography. As a graphic designer, I intended to develop a visual
identity for one of the non-profit institutions in Assisi. I feel lucky
that my intention had found such a place as the Ginestrelle Art
Studio conducting the program of Art Residency. Through the
observation of site and the analysis of the programs goals, I have
designed three different versions of the Ginestrelle logo, from which
the final one had been selected for the Studios potential use in the
future.
While working in Ginestrelle I collected an enormous amount of
material for further use in photographic impressions from Italy. The
portraits of people from the region of Umbria, as well as artists, my
new friends from the Art Residency Program, completed my visual photographic diary of the
summer 2014.

romanduszek@missouristate.edu

LYNDA FRESE

Being here at Ginestrelle we are surrounded by the

spirits of the ancient forest, and also by strong
spiritual traditions and teachings.
In my project, Divine Plant Kingdoms in Antiquity,
the animals, plants and birds speak to us, and like
Saint Francis, we wonder how our stories can fit our
memorable encounters with the natural world. In
my photo collage work, I use images from historic
and pre-historic times and places and then circle
them with plants that are animated with holy
spirits.
My work suggests narratives about our ancient
cultures, and presents ways we may contemplate
and honor the mysteries in nature. On top of these
collages I paint with egg tempera, using eggs from
the local farm and colored powdered pigments
mined from different earth sites. In these images, I use violet hematite, lapis lazuli, blue
verditer and Italian raw umber.

www.lyndafrese.com

GARY GREEN

Gary Green makes photographs that most often depict the natural world, the built
environment, and the history of nature. His work in Assisi will consist of photographs made
during a series of walks. Walking as a meditative activity is central to the work as is the act of
discovery made during his getting lost in the surrounding landscape. In addition, he will be
photographing remnants of history through a series of still-lifes and architectural studies. Gary
Green is an Associate Professor of Art at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. He will be part of
the upcoming exhibition Scaling Maine, a three-person show at Bates College in Lewiston,
Maine; and has been invited to spend three weeks this coming winter at the Yaddo Artist
Colony in Saratoga Springs, NY. His work is held in many permanent collections, including those
of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, TX; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Colby College
Museum of Art, Bates College Museum of Art, and the Portland Museum of Art in Maine. Most
recently, twelve photographs from his series Terrain Vague were acquired by the Rhode Island
School of Design Museum in Providence.
www.garygreenphotographs.com
Supported by the Division of the Humanities

DIANA J. JONES
Independent Behavioral Analyst
B.A. Fine Arts, Art Education, Spanish - Flagler College, St. Augustine, FL, USA M.A.
Educational Leadership - Stetson University, De Land, FL USA Certified BCaBA - Florida
Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL USA
My stay in Assisi was a break from the noise. My job in the states is all
about science, structure and behavior. There is a beauty in what I do,
but it is a beauty made not typical to the art realm. This in mind, my two
weeks in Ginestrelle were taken to be quiet and introspective. I took
time to just look. In the end, this time, for me, was about really looking
at the beauty of what is in front of me. Not a passing glance as I rush off
to something else, but a contemplation of a calling for me to be still and
know (Psalm 46:10).

Godoesgood@hotmail.com

CHRISTINE LOFASO
Call and Response: Twenty-five Days in Mount Subasio

My work addresses the notion of place and engenders aspects of memory, time, loss,
transformation, and renewal. I work with ephemeral materials such as handmade paper, textile
fragments, earth, indigenous plants, and cultural debris to evoke a sense of place.
Call and Response refers to the style of
singing in which the melody sung by one
singer is responded to or echoed by another
or others. It parallels the call-and-response
pattern in human communication. During my
time in Mount Subasio I was very interested
in the dialog between the natural
environment and the early 20th century
farmhouse and barn/studio that is the site of
Arte Studio Ginestrelle. This relationship, like
a semi-permeable membrane, ignores the
traditional architectural boundaries of outside and inside. While I arrived with a general
notion of the materials I would use, the idea for my project developed in response to the
environment, and particularly this interchange of land and house. Working with handmade
paper produced from the Ginestra (Broom) plant, which grows in abundance on Mount
Subasio, I used techniques of frottage, embossment and lamination to capture surfaces and
elements of the house, barn/studio, and
land. Taken together, the many portfoliotype book pages evoke a narrative of place
and time.
The land calls, the house responds: etched
brass keyhole, cane seat, lace curtain, wellused writing desk, woven burlap, wood
stove, rusted grain sifter, terra cotta altar,
embroidered pillow, stone fireplace, handhewn beamThe house calls, the land
responds: ginestra, osyris dawn, poppy,
sambuca, leccio, olive, giunco, fig, eglantine rose, acacia, sandstoneand the chorus
harmonizes cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo

www.art.niu.edu/Art-Studio-Faculty-2/Christine-Lofaso.html
c.lofaso@att.net

MARY JO MANN
Water and Rock

I am interested in examining the interaction between man and the environment. When I
arrived at Arte Studio Ginestrelle I spent some time walking around the roads and looking at
this ruggedly beautiful place. The land shows the layers of
history in the geology and in the marks on the landscape
made by man and nature. There is evidence of structures built
and some destroyed; farms cultivated and some reclaimed by
nature. Water and roads making paths up and down the
hillsides.
I realized that the elements of water and the colors and
textures of the land have become the focus of my work. Using
fluid paints and gravity to pull the paint down the paper I
created paths and marks. Collage elements and rubbings
create textures and layers. Upon reflection I realize that water
in the form of streams and waterfalls has personal
significance. It symbolizes transformation and cleansing. This
experience has been just that for me. An opportunity to focus on my art work and grow as an
artist. My admiration and gratitude to Marina Merli for creating such an enriching artist
residency.
My appreciation to the Cultural Council of Assisi for supporting this project.

www.artbymaryjo.net
mjmann2@gmail.com

PETER MAUSS
As a photographer of art and architecture for many years, I have
been exploring the relationship between landscape, light and
the projects which we design and build. The natural
characteristics of each locale, the climate, the raw materials at
hand and the cultural traditions determine the balance between
preserving and developing our environment.
Whether I am photographing for a client or working on my own
project, I constantly observe and evaluate the special visual
details of each milieu. A house or a city, a private garden or a
public park, a sculpture or an entire museum - each displays a
specific visual fabric from which we learn about the culture and
country they inhabit.
I plan to immerse myself in the Assisi area surrounding Ginestrelle, to absorb in a limited time
as much of the local art, history and cultural traditions as possible. And, with the perspective of
an outsider, to make a series of photographs that illuminate certain aspects, some subtle and
some familiar, of life in this unique area of Umbria.
At the end of the residency, I would plan a
presentation of images and a discussion with the
community at the arte studio.

www.esto.com
info@esto.com

ANNE MURRAY
MFA and MS in Art History, Pratt Institute
BFA Parsons School of Design, Paris

Translucido Opaco, is about clarity and how it renders itself obsolete along the course of things that are
obscure and difficult to define. Ironically, one sees through the mind's eye more clearly when the edges
of things are more roughly defined and interpretation allows us to follow our own course, which,
through human congruence of experience, ends up in the same place.

annemurrayartist.com

THOMAS MURRAY
Currently residing in Edinburg, Texas, USA MFA University of New Mexico, USA

Intending to paint about St. Francesco of Assisi was first in

my proposal to the Arte Studio Ginestrella. Though
inaccurately attributed, the prayer of St. Francesco
embodies keys to my own character defects, offering
solutions and raising my conscious awareness of my
relationship to my fellow man.
In my research my curiosity was piqued by the formation of
the city, visits to the Fortezza and the Roman Tribunal
beneath the square led me to explore the idea of the
sacred feminine through the remnants of Minerva. Having witnessed resulting attempts at
iconoclasm in other places, (in Nicosia Cypress a gothic Catholic cathedral had been redressed
as a Muslim place of worship, and in Firenze, the Baptistery of Santa Maria del Fiore was once a
pagan temple) I was curious about the persistence of faith, memory, and ultimately our
relationship to this much higher idea found in God.
I made many paintings and drawings. I citied the clever, the drama, the ego. Each with a seed of
truth. "The Eye of my Son as the rose Window of St. Francesco" came out of these attempts,
and personalized the public. My narrative becomes our narrative, and vice versa.
Almost two full weeks passed before the inspiration visited me. I sat with St. Francesco at his
tomb. I watched the monks, devoted, walking through the city. A rope, tied at the waist with
three knots, is not only functional, but also a reminder of their vows.
"This is my Rope"
I offer this drawing as a reminder. I have my
vows, my code. I fall short. The knots emulate
the technique used by the monks encircling me.
A deeper understanding of my place here has
been offered. A cord surrounds me, I begin and
end my walk in the woods with St. Francesco.

www.thomasmurrayart.com

PHYLLIS ODESSEY
Crossing the Line

Traditionally, the garden has been a poetic, literary, mythological and magical space. The
evolution of the Crossing The Line project finds its genesis in the Italian passeggiata or the
French flaneur. This project uses the act of walking to activate thought and emotion.
For this project, I intend to create a walk around arte studio ginestrelle. This walk will be
composed of carefully placed man-made objects in the landscape that I will create. This walk
will be a journey of discovery. The walk will take approximately 45 minutes and may be along a
well-trodden path, but hopefully it will go through an unspoiled landscape. As the participant
walks, he/she may see a tree branch painted white at the foot of a tree.
Crossing The Line uses the act of walking as a way of refocusing attention to nature. By
heightening the walk, introducing objects into landscape, the viewer becomes an activist. The
history of walking is about the history of freedom and pleasure. The work changes this activity
into journey for the imagination.
As Rebecca Solnit has said Walking allows us to be in our bodies and in the world without being
made busy by them. It leaves us free to think without being wholly lost in our thoughtsThe
rhythm of walking generates a kind of rhythm
of thinking. This creates an odd consonance
between internal and external passage, one
that suggests that the mind is also a
landscape of sorts and that walking is one
way to traverse it.

www.phyllisodessey.com

SUSAN OMALLEY

Celebrating the deckle edge unique to handmade paper, I dyed and sewed over six hundred
handmade papers to create my fiber sculpture. Harvesting banana stumps, ginger stalks, wild
flax plus indigenous Hawaiian plants such as hau and wauke provides me with a media rich in
the natural earth tones of vegetable dyes.
Susanomalley888@gmail.com

RACHEL VANWYLEN
One of my artistic interests is the changing quality of light and color in nature. I enjoy working
outdoors and observing the ephemeral qualities of the landscape around me, and I find it
important to actually inhabit the space
that I am painting. Naturally, I am
thinking in the same vein as so many of
the Impressionists, who also cared about
light, atmosphere, color, and changes in
nature. The Arte Studio Ginestrelle in the
Park of Mount Subasio has proven a good
place for this kind of work. The wide
variety of plants, the gorgeous light, and
the rolling hills have provided me ample
fodder for my creative work. If I had
another year to work in the same
location, I am convinced that I would not
run out of new paintings to make, since
there myriad new things to see in these
hills.
www.rachelvanwylen.com

LIDOA WAGNER
Visual Artist, M.S. University of Oregon, United States

I came to Assisi to accelerate work on Eves Imprint: A Global Family, my body of work tracing
our human migration from East Africa to all parts of the world. Through DNA testing I learned
that my own paternal ancestors went from East Africa to Arabia and the Near East, then into
Europe - passing through Tuscany, Italy before following the Mediterranean coast to Spain
where they stayed until the end of the last glacial maxim.
Italy has been a crossroads of various migrating peoples. Many
migrations were in response to environmental crises such as the
volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. Accompanying
twelve geographic and temporal alcoves in Eves Imprint will be
eight banners depicting the relationship between humans and
natural calamities such as volcanic eruptions, floods or
droughts, hurricanes, comets, typhoons, cyclones, wildfires, and
earthquakes.
With Mount Subasio in the background, I have created a banner
depicting humanitys confrontation with two faces of nature:
majestic mountains that inspire reverence and volcanic
eruptions that bring death and destruction. The regeneration of
the Umbrian countryside after centuries of deforestation has
been an inspiration. Visiting the Geo-Paleontological Museum gave me a deep appreciation for
the geological event that pushed Italy up from the bottom of the ocean. I am grateful for the
authentic Italian lifestyle I have experienced at Arte Studio Ginestrelle and for the sacred
environment of Assisi.

www.lidonawagner.com
lidonaw@gmail.com

L. MARTINA YOUNG
Dance Artist/Movement Investigator Ph.D. Mythological Studies/Depth Psychology, Pacifica
Graduate Institute MFA Dance Aesthetics, Arizona State University BFA Dance, California
Institute of the Arts
SWAN: a poetical inquiry in dance, text & memoir is a three-part collaborative performance
installation and memoir project that began in 2013. This final performance segment, Hieros
Gamos, (divine union), marks my 60th birthday and fortieth year as a dance maker and
performance artist (parts I and II are titled Coniunctio and Rubedo respectively).
As an investigative work, SWAN offers a portal into the www.amiraniwoodwind.comimage of
swan as found in music, poetry, dance, psychology, alchemy, mythology, philosophy, and art.
As a creative memoir, it frames
lived moments that underscore
what French poet Pierre
Reverdy refers to as universal
and human dramas [becoming]
one, as we attend to the
sublime simplicity of reality.
Grounded in my ongoing
meditations on a poetics of the
body, SWAN contextualizes an
aesthetic that remains open
and responsive to the poetic
image through the felt mode of
poetic perception, processes
of engagement wedded to
intuition, the sensual, and to
somaesthetic memory, modes of knowing distinctly other than our day-to-day perceptions.
A dimensional and integrated project, SWAN is informed by my work as a movement theorist
and educator, kinesiologist and mythologist, as well as by viscerally perceived notitia of how
persons inhabit their bodies, tethered and unmoored, in short, how the marks of life matter
on our bodypsyches. Choreographically I use a concrete language of the body, intent upon reimplacement of and feeling for remembrance of some lost part of ourselves what I refer to
as the way of the swan thereby renewing relationship to our empathic responses through
aesthetic and poetic means.

www.apoeticbody.com
www.amiraniwoodwind.com

ANASTASIA ZHELEZNAYA
These works are based on a book by my favorite author Mikhail Bulgakov. Along with my
husband I was asked to do artistic direction for a play after Bulgakovs novel Master and
Margarita. I wanted to make art pieces that help me see into the exploration of this novel. It is
claimed by many, that this writing has magical powers
and my intention was to find this magic through the
paintings.
Perugia and Asissi as well as Rome is a perfect place for
inspiration, since a large part of this novel takes place
not only in the 1950s Moscow but in the Roman times
and Pontius Pilate along with Jesus are some of the main
characters. Ive incorporated some of the surrounding
landscapes and animal life. Also what is important is a
correlation and union of different cultures that comes
into play, just reflecting on our time spent at the
Ginestrelle Arte Studio.

www.azrdesigngroup.com
azrinteriordesign@gmail.com

CON IL SOSTEGNO E IL PATROCINIO DELLA

With the Grateful Support of

Claudio Ricci, Mayor of Assisi

American artist, Virginia Mallon
The Nassau County Sheriff's Department Columbia Association Cultural
and Educational Association, Inc. (USA)