Time

 Rachel Watson

New Orleans
July - August 2021

Time. Time is one of the most important things someone can give me as an artist. Time to think of new ideas. Time to flesh out old ideas. Time to experiment. Time to create. It’s not often that I have undivided time to do any of those things. Normally, tasks for everyday life consume my days. However, at Rensing, I was awarded this time. I was able to relax. To create. To go on walks. To make new friends. I was able to focus on the thing I love the most. Art. And for that, I am forever grateful. 

I can’t thank the people there enough for their encouragement, kindness, and openness. To Jessi, my new friend, my first roommate in years, my cohort, and my horror movie watching buddy. Thank you for the walks, the breaks, and all the enjoyable banter. To Ron, thank you for your kind words, the invitations to local events, and your stories. To Ellen, thank you for your hospitality, your softness, your drive, your inviting nature, and your creativity. Thank you for creating such a lovely space for artists to come to. For providing us with that time that we all need. 

While at Rensing I focused on a couple of things I’ve wanted to do for a while. I developed film in Caffenol, went through film from years ago, fleshed out future ideas, and built my first pinhole camera. Now, I am a camera nerd. I own around 60 film still and video cameras. However, I’ve never made one myself. It was a natural progression for me, and I finally did it! I found a gorgeous wood and leather hat box at the local flea market, figured out the pinhole size, made the box lighttight, and loaded it with 4x5” film. After a few days of tinkering…it worked! I spent a few days taking photographs with this camera around Rensing and Pickens and I was able to get some lovely photographs from it. Making this camera will send me on a path of making cameras out of found objects wherever I travel. So again, thank you Rensing. Without this residency I wouldn’t be beginning my next body of work. The camera and the photograph, in this case, will both be art.