Amy Whitcomb: TIES THAT BIND
“Knowing that each time I enter my surroundings I have a different experience motivates me to continually go out, immerse, and be with the mysteries and familiars out there.”
Summer II 2024 Artist-in-Residence in Hamilton, MT, at Explore the ARTS
Amy’s Artist Presentation at Explore the ARTS.
What role does place play in your work, especially during your time at Open AIR?
My natural surroundings are really important to me; things like windows and breeze and birdsong excite and recharge me. Knowing that each time I enter my surroundings I have a different experience motivates me to continually go out, immerse, and be with the mysteries and familiars out there. Being part of a physical place this way brings me a profound sense of belonging and gratitude.
For my residency, it mattered that I could go out to witness, explore, and participate in the place—then come back in to process and create. I wanted to work in Hamilton because of this dynamic, being so close to so many trailheads, and because Hamilton and the site, Explore the ARTS, serve as hubs for artists, art appreciators, interdisciplinary (scientist) collaborators, school-aged students, longtime local Montanans, and summer tourists. The place informed and infused the books I created in residency, especially the local ranching scenes, the Native American history and stories, and of course the river. I tried to use the colors of brown and beige that surrounded me, and movement like that of water and animal life, and juxtapositions of perspectives that sites like St. Mary’s Mission make plain.
Explore the ARTS in Hamilton, MT .
Were there moments that surprised you or shifted your process?
I came to Explore the ARTS primarily identifying as a creative writer, with some papermaking experience and a nascent bookbinding practice that I wanted to probe. My comfort zone is definitely words, so I was surprised during the residency when my practice started to include sketching. The sketches were precursors to the books I wanted to bring to life and helped me shift from working in two dimensions to working in three dimensions. Still, it took me a while to realize that books are like sculpture, and that bookmaking is like sculpture art. I had to enlarge my understanding of myself and my capacity, which was in turn exciting and intimidating. I tried to channel my sculpture artist friend from home whose voice I could hear in my head: more sketches, more concepts. She would have believed in me as a bookmaker, so without her there I needed to cheer lead myself and not cave to anxiety and impostor syndrome.
Book Binding workshop taught by Amy during her residency.
Describe your Open AIR Residency experience.
My residency at Explore the ARTs in Hamilton was smoky! It was also busy! There was so much to do thanks to the site, the host, and the support from Open AIR. Many of my days passed pretty simply, with a morning walk around town, time for journaling and reading, and several hours in the studio. Tucked in there over the four weeks I also went hiking, enjoyed outdoor concerts, helped out with an arts activity at a skilled nursing facility, visited the county museum, participated in the city’s Cultural Crawl and Daly Days, dropped in to open painting studio hours, prepped and gave my workshop, and traveled to Butte and Flathead Lake Biological Station to meet other Open AIR artists. The community and variety were fortifying to me. They really added to the complexity and richness of the place and my understanding of art as a way people come together and get to know one another.
Bull riding in downtown Hamilton during Daly Days - an annual event celebrating Hamilton’s heritage.
Tell us more about what you mean by the community at your site. How did the people affect your art or your development?
I interacted with so many people during my residency, but a handful stand out as really grounding, supportive, and inspiring presences. I arrived in Hamilton with a sort of a mentor, one volume of the bookbinding “bible” and the words of its author, Keith Smith, to help wrap my head around the challenges and opportunities that the form of a book offers. Smith was with me as I decided which binding or format to try and as I interpreted what the form was helping me to express.
Keith Smith’s Non-Adhesive Binding: Books Without Paste or Glue
In the flesh, though, my site host Barbara Liss kept me current on and involved in all the Hamilton happenings, and she demonstrated what it means to make and share art—even just feather and leaf collages, wind catchers with driftwood and beads, or a bouquet of brightly inked coffee filters in bloom—every day. Every single day!
Also super inspiring to me was Barbara’s brother who visited Explore the ARTS frequently to watch and talk. He was always curious and humble, even though he is a master cartographer.
Equally passionate and generous was a painter and bookbinder who invited me to her home and blew me away with a tour of her studio. She had put so much time and thought into making the space what she needed it to be. As a new homeowner myself, I got lots of ideas and affirmation about what my shed can become with a bold vision.
Barbara Liss and Amy Whitcomb at Explore the ARTS.
Lastly, I want to cheer the community of kids and adults artists who participated in the Daly Days sidewalk chalk art contest! They showed up at 8 AM with their ideas and their supplies in tow (I had no idea how involved chalk art can be!), and most of them stayed for hours in the sun and smoke until they conjured and colored a scene or character to the best of their ability. They did it in public, for the public, and they enjoyed themselves. That was truly inspiring to me!
Sidewalk chalk art at Daly Days.
What are you up to now (post Open AIR)?
I’m writing! I’m writing much more than I am making books, interestingly. Working with different materials and concepts during my residency made me miss and appreciate my home base of creative writing, and I’m writing more frequently with more big ideas than I had for months before the residency. I’m also trying out a membership at a nearby printmakers collective to complete my artwork for the Open AIR exhibition and am planning with my branch librarian to host a small bookmaking workshop modeled after the one I did as an Open AIR resident.
Click to watch the highlights of Amy’s Residency!
Enjoy Amy’s Artist Presentation on Open AIR’s YouTube channel!
Want to learn more about Amy? Visit her website!
