Genevieve Waller: SYNESTHESIA
“I enjoyed trying out the different tools in the MakerSpace and figuring out what kinds of projects I could use them for (and I love the fact that these tools are available at most school and library makerspaces across the U.S.—very democratic and accessible!)”
Summer I 2024 Artist-in-Residence at Missoula Public Library
Genevieve Waller, Missoula Public Library Artist-in-Residence.
What are you reading/watching/or listening to?
The book I liked best that I read this year is Stella Gibbons’ novel Cold Comfort Farm from 1932, which is hilarious and witty, painting a portrait of future where everyone has their own helicopters, quite feminist, and many people liken it to a Jane Austen novel. During my stay in Missoula, I watched a compelling film called Short Term 12, focused on a residential facility for children and teenagers from troubled homes with staff who’ve had some of the same experiences. I love films and books where people have real and relatable emotions and find ways to cope with trauma through friendships and alternative families. Since returning to Denver, I saw the film American Fiction in the theater and highly recommend it, and at home I watched a sweet film by Mira Nair called My Own Country, based on the memoir of an East Indian doctor who treated HIV positive patients in Tennessee during the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
My favorite place to discover new music is checking out the online streams of the renowned, freeform WFMU community radio station based in Jersey City, New Jersey. My current favorite shows are Your Boy Black Helmet Radio, Mona, New Flanland, Global Grease, Explorers Room, The Cool Blue Flame, Mahoghany, and my all-time favorite will always be Ritual Music with Lady Chanticleer, which went on hiatus in October.
Artists-in-Residence Genevieve Waller and Reilly Blum at the Missoula Public Library.
Describe your Open AIR Residency experience. How did you spend your time, construct your space, or engage with the community?
During May and June of this year, I shared a house in Missoula with two other Open AIR residents (Reilly Blum and Danielle O’Malley) and my residency site was the makerspace at the Missoula Public Library. While in residence I also explored Missoula, trying out classes at the YMCA, visiting The Treasure Chest for art supplies often, checking out galleries and the wonderful Missoula Art Museum, going to every bookstore in town, and stopping by all the thrift shops at least once.
At the library MakerSpace, I mostly worked after hours (I wanted to give the library patrons space to work there during the day). It was a treat to lay out all my materials on the four tables and work on sewing, soft sculpture, assemblage works, and laser-cut wood pieces simultaneously. During the day, I worked in the painting studio at the University of Montana on small, beaded fruit pear sculptures and brightly colored cellophane chain strands.
The Treasure Chest craft and hobby shop in Missoula, MT.
Interior of The Treasure Chest in Missoula, MT.
My favorite community engagement projects were the soft sculpture workshop I led, which the Open AIR staff generously organized, and the radio show I had on Friday nights on the KGFM community radio station. I think the workshop participants enjoyed the experience, and I even taught someone how to use a sewing machine for the first time!
Participants creating fabric sculptures in Genevieve’s Soft Sculpture 101 Workshop in the MakerSpace.
For my two-hour show “The Violet Hour” on KFGM, I curated different musical themes (New Wave music for the first show; dance and disco music for a LGBTQ+ Pride show for the second edition), and for the last two shows I collaborated with fellow Open AIR artist Reilly Blum on “call and response” music shows, where we alternated choosing songs for a goth-themed night and an evening devoted to hip-hop. Some listeners called in during the show and made requests too!
KFGM, Missoula Public Radio
Genevieve created a Pride-themed radio show on KFGM and participated in the Pride Parade during her residency.
Were there moments that surprised you or shifted your process?
I enjoyed trying out the different tools in the MakerSpace and figuring out what kinds of projects I could use them for (and I love the fact that these tools are available at most school and library makerspaces across the U.S.—very democratic and accessible!). After testing out the computerized embroidery machine, I started making a series of words embroidered on paper—something I hadn’t planned to do ahead of time…I was inspired in the moment by the possibilities of the machine! I realized to sew large letters within the space of the small embroidery frame, I had to limit myself to words that were three or four letters long, and in English that means mostly words with Germanic and Anglo-Saxon roots. I was reminded of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style edict that “Anglo-Saxon is a livelier tongue than Latin, so use Anglo-Saxon words.” The resulting works on paper I produced are small poems, I suppose, that try to encapsulate a narrative or image in two words (though I did sneak in a few French phrases!).
Genevieve’s embroidered paper artwork created at the MakerSpace in the Missoula Public Library.
How did the residency influence or change your artistic direction?
I learned the basics of 3-D scanning at the library MakerSpace, and when I returned to Denver, I started doing weekly 3-D scanning sessions at the Arapahoe Public Library’s makerspace. I’m still learning, but I have a goal to make a 3-D scan of every kind of dried pasta I can find!
I also spent time at the MakerSpace making laser-cut wood boxes for a series of music box sculptures I’ve been wanting to produce for years. I recently started painting the boxes and securing the music box mechanisms on the inside, and I’m hoping to create small sculptures out of drinking straws to top each box. With the straws I want to make “drawings in space”—an idea invented by the American artist David Smith (1906-1965) to describe his approach to sculpture—and to explore synesthesia, paying homage to the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky’s paintings inspired by music.
Laser-cutting music boxes at the Missoula Public Library.
Genevieve’s In-progress laser-cut music boxes.
Tell us about your most recent solo exhibition/performance/publication.
The day after I returned to Denver from Missoula, I took down a two-person exhibition titled Phantom Potpourri with my friend Paloma Jimenez at a venue called the Art Gym in Denver. Since coming back to Colorado, I’ve also worked on and distributed the Summer and Fall issues of my art magazine DARIA: Denver Art Review, Inquiry, and Analysis, which documents the art scene in the Colorado Front Range through reviews of exhibitions, artist profiles, and an exhibitions calendar. I also sold my small house in Littleton, Colorado and bought a new place in Aurora, Colorado where I have space for an art studio and room to host friends and family! And in November and early December, I participated in another artist residency located in northern Wyoming at a site called Jentel—a beautiful, remote place that hosts cohorts of four visual artists and two writers for three-week sessions throughout the year.
Summer issue of Daria, an art criticism magazine founded and edited by Genevieve.
What are you up to now (post Open AIR)?
I’m currently planning out two shows that I’m curating in 2025: a group show at the new Zing Gallery in downtown Denver, which is housed in the credit union I’ve used since moving to the city in 2013, and a show called Papier Fantastique, which focuses on artists who use paper in imaginative ways to make installations and sculptures, and will be held at the Boulder Public Library’s Canyon Gallery from December 2025 to January 2026. I’m also working on the Spring 2025 issue of my magazine DARIA, launching March 1, 2025, and I have another two-person exhibition with Paloma Jimenez scheduled for November 2025. I’m waiting to hear back about a couple of grants for other projects as well! And I’m slowly moving out of my awesome shared art studio in the Evans School in downtown Denver. The owner-developers of the 1904 building are in the process of turning the space into high-end retail stores and a beer garden, and the artists like me who’ve had studios there over the past four years are now waiting for the final word when we must move out.
Genevieve’s exhibition Phantom Potpourri at Art Gym in Denver, CO.
Click to learn more about Genevieve’s art-making process!
Watch to be amazed by Genevieve’s artwork in her Open AIR Artist Presentation!
