Eastern Summer

The Hudson, seen from the roof at Catwalk.

I’m going to have a fine summer.  From May 25 through July 4, I’ll be just a wee bit south of where I was in Catskill, NY, last June, at Women’s Studio Workshop. From July 15 through August 10, I’ll be at I-Park, in Connecticut.

Yep, I-Park is the place I had a not-so-great experience with last year.  But, with simple graciousness, they contacted me a few weeks ago, said that they had had to leave a few artists ‘on a sour note’ last year, that they had re-vamped their application process, and  invited me to reapply, with the application fee waived, for this summer.  I did, this year’s jury accepted me, and my residency is now “100%, written-in-stone, totally confirmed.”

I am so very happy this happened, not only because of the residency (though I am quite pleased about that; the place really appealed to me when I was searching for the best-for-me new residency experiences last year).  What I appreciate more than anything, though, is the very cordial and honest admission of a mistake, and the highly civilized attempt to make concrete amends, which I admired (and would have written about) even if I hadn’t been accepted.

In stark contrast to other situations, such simply considerate behavior is utterly refreshing, and faith-renewing.  I-Park is living up to the good things I’d heard from other residents, and I heartily commend them for it.

(You get two blahgs today; another one follows this.  I had this one written and ready to publish, then I got swamped by work and knocked down by yet another respiratory bug…somewhere in there, I wrote the next one…)