A repost of an e-mail conversation today between me and Girl Clumsy - partly cos I'm always forgetting to address the damn obvious on this blog (i.e. I assume I've filled you in on all the nitty gritty details but then realise later there are more holes in the story than a bunny-infested golf course) and partly cos I'm just lazy.
Girl Clumsy wrote:
Hey there!
Hope everything's going well in Canuck-land... I must say that Banff Centre looks lovely. My parents have been to Banff, but I've yet to get to Canada.
May I ask what is the nature of your residency at the centre? How did you apply, and do you have to pay, or did you get a grant for that as well?
It makes me wish I was actually a proper writer so I could do something like that!
Cheers, Natalie.
Well hello hon!
Great to hear from you! Everything's going beautifully thus far, makes all the agony of getting here totally worth it, I'm very happy to say. I couldn't recommend visiting this place enough - it's honestly the most beautiful and magical place I've ever been in my entire life, not that I've travelled that extensively overseas, but I've seen quite a lot of Oz which are pretty awesome.
The residency I'm doing is an independent one at the Leighton Studios, there are about 8 (I think?) of these studios on site that artists can apply to use for however long, for whatever purposes they desire. I'm using the time to work on developing a new show (specifically focusing on incorporating more multimedia into what I do, taking advantage of the awesome New Media Centre here) plus honing my performance techniques, practising lots of piano and voicework, plus I'll do whatever relevant workshops are going on at the time. I'm hoping to organise for one of my mentors from last year's trip to join me for some of the time too, but obviously that will depend on availability and funds!
I do have to pay for it, but thankfully they've subsidised me 50% - I'm waiting to hear back on a couple of different grants to help me out ,but worst case it's going on the credit card!!
Of course you can do something like this!!! You don't have to wait for someone to tell you you're a proper writer or anything - just go for it. I have to say I think I applied for about a gazillion grants (wwwaaaaaay before I was even closer to 'proper' or whatever that even means) before I got one. So I would say just check out anything and everything that interests you and put in for it - as my grandma always said to me 'you've gotta be in it to win it!'
Wow, what a rant. That's longer than my blog entries! Actually, I might even just repost this reply for today's one. ;-)
Take care honey and great to stay in touch.
Jen. x
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2 comments:
Hi JenJen!
I'm inspired by your descriptions of Banff. A Canadian friend spent many years there and it's always sounded magical. I just started surfing the centre's job list and already found something 4 Leon, maybe that will be our next move! We are thinking of moving in January. How long are u staying there? What's Tim doing?
We just got home from 'Eastern Europe'. Prague and Cesky Krumlov were like fairy land- so romantic except we had to share a room with Mum for the bulk of the trip! Ate a snitzel in Vienna. Budapest was ok but they shut all the bridges so they could do military airshows. You know, just imagine your typical post-soviet national holiday (dis)organised by the same people who used to be in control during the soviet era. We were trapped on the wrong side of the river for 4 hours. I'm laughing about it now. Leon has asked me to insert this comparison: "Imagine if the Beattie government decided to stage an airshow and closed all the bridges (without warning) and the express way, leaving only the footbridge open (and the footbridge was 10km out of town). Then imagine Brisbane is on 1 side of the river, and Ipswich is on the other. Guess which side you're stuck on." But really I don't think it was THAT bad.
Then on to Croatia, the Adriatic Sea was like swimming in salty silk, it was balm for my soul and my skin, and because we were visiting my friend Mirjana who is from a small village there, we got to meet all sorts of crazy locals. It was gorgeous. I have been feeling a bit sad that every1 I know has an interesting blog about their infinitely interesting lives, and all I ever do is wine about how I don't like London. So I'm going to try to start my own travel blog, or maybe contribute to the one that Leon has been maintaining.
We will be surfing for cheap flights to Canada! I'm super stoked that you guys made it happen! ooh, and I'm also very excited about the piano/voice direction.
love you
Smashley
Wow, honey, what adventures!!!! You guys should definitely come here, that would seriously rock! Let me assure you there is TONS of work here, you certainly won't have any problems finding something. We're here til at least March, but already I don't think we want to leave! You're also more than welcome to stay with us whenever you get here, just checked out our apartment yesterday and it's wicked.
Love you! xxx
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