senior mentor blog: Pete Hocking

Today will be my first day back in the studio after winter break. I suppose it’s a time for some reflection. And some planning. I always get excited the “first day of school.” Not that NUA is “school.” But beginnings always speak to possibility. And the possibility of life ROCKS.

Sarah, Tamara and I talked last week about the coming semester. It’s going to be busy – with visiting artists and the regular weekly time. I’m really thrilled about Pam Hall’s upcoming visit. She’ll be doing a brief residency with New Urban Arts in conjunction with her time as a RISD Public Engagement Associate. Some of what she’ll be doing is related to the installation she’ll be doing at Brown|RISD Hillel, titled A Wish and a Prayer.

I’ve also made a commitment to reviving this blog (I started writing for it a while ago but just made some back-dated posts). I don’t know if people read it, but I think it would be great to build a dialogue here. Feel free to post a comment and I’ll do my best to keep up to date. In addition to posting reflections about the studio, I’m also starting a photographic meditation series on my experience of New Urban Arts. Sometimes, I’ve learned, I learn more visually than I do through words.

I never finished the series of drawings I started last fall (well, what is finished? I made some decent drawings!) – mostly because I felt inhibited about the space I was taking up when I made them. I’ve thought a lot about this – what it means to take up space in an active community studio – and I’ve concluded that I need to be subtler in how I work at NUA. I know there’s space for me to work – and even a lot of space for special projects – but that as a regular process I want to be discrete. This semester I think I’ll challenge myself to work small – which isn’t something I think I do well. Perhaps I’ll learn something new.