Western New Mexico University Artist-in-Residence Elizabeth Gerdeman is well familiar with art residencies, having traveled as far as Armenia and Switzerland on previous residencies. Her current position at WNMU, though, is her first in the American southwest.
“I knew that I wanted to do an artist’s residency in the southwest—I was looking particularly in New Mexico—but I hadn’t found that nice combination of what this residency seems to offer: to be immersed within both an academic and local community imbued in the arts and surrounded by wilderness,” she explained.
The university’s location is especially important to Gerdeman because of the nature of her work. “I am driven by places that exist at the intersections of nature and culture,” she said, “where my interdisciplinary practice of painting, installation, and site-specificity continues to evolve from experiences in such varied and complex areas of the world.”
Gerdeman, who holds a BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design and an MFA from the Ohio State University, was also attracted to WNMU because of the opportunity to work with the university’s many first-generation college students. “I am first-generation as well, so I wanted to be able to give back,” she said.
Gerdeman was drawn to art as a child because it offered her another way to communicate. “When you are younger,” she said, “you are still trying to figure out how to make your ideas known in a way that is palpable not only to other children but to adults, as well, because they seem to be the ones that have the power.” Being able to express herself through art felt magical to the younger Gerdeman.
“There is an age when most humans stop doing something artistic,” she said, lamenting how so many people say they used to play music, or they used to dance, or they used to write poetry. Gerdeman emphasized how important it is to continue doing creative work as an adult. “At its essence,” she said, “creativity is really problem solving.”
In addition to working on her own art during the year-long residency at WNMU, Gerdeman is also working closely with students. “I aim to empower students with the essential skills and knowledge for lifelong success in their creative work and life as artists,” she explained. “In addition to the open-door policy during selected studio hours, I also engage in opportunities for individual meetings and studio visits with students, conducting critiques and offering professional practices advice to assist students with the more practical aspects of being an artist, such as writing artist statements and giving artist talk presentations.”
She also plans to work with students as collaborative partners as she prepares for an exhibition of her work next spring at the WNMU Francis McCray Gallery of Contemporary Art. “Next semester, I plan to also collaborate with students on an ongoing project titled ‘Viewfinders’ that will combine [students’] own unique, creative approach to engaging their immediate surroundings through color, framing and site-specificity.”
“A viewfinder is a tool that enables artists to frame or crop a particular scene to arrange their composition and perceive an area in greater detail,” Gerdeman elaborated. “Through this project, students will engage more directly with their surroundings through art, acting and reacting to the spaces they occupy with purposeful meaning and intention, whereby they are encouraged to become more active in shaping the relationships we have with our environments—acknowledging a role of the artist to direct attention to specific aspects of the world around us, stirring emotions, shifting perceptions and inspiring action.”
The opportunity for this kind of collaborative project is exactly what drew Gerdeman to the WNMU Artist Residency. “I delight in these opportunities to focus on my work and research in a new and inspiring environment, to connect with other creative individuals and to have life-changing experiences that last long into the future.”
Gerdeman’s art can be viewed here.