Artist in Residency Application

Joanne Mary Agnes Babiak

Nanaimo, British Columbia         ramblingrrl@gmail.com  

 

Biography/Artist & Purpose Statement       

 Extraordinary Commonalities 

This theme speaks to my affinity for oxymorons to reflect the contrasts of life. As a black and white aficionado/photographer and documentary filmmaker I continue to hone my powers of observation both here at home and abroad.  A recently returned retiree who spent the past winter of 2012 in the charming and vibrant artistic community of Ajijic, Jalisco., Mexico.  I want to continue to look at my world with the childlike sense of day to day wonder in the miracles / milagros de vida/  of life as they are gifted to us in sometimes the most common and infinitesimal of ways.

As I prepare to pack up my two decade long residency in the Okanagan to move to Nanaimo and area I believe that synchronicity or 'fortunate happenstance has led me to 'accidentally discover the outstanding opportunity to apply to become the debut Artist in Residence at The Haven on spectacularly picturesque Gabriola Island.

Wishing, hoping and praying to one day live by the ocean ever since I was 16 and starting my work life it is now at this pivotal juncture in my life after a diverse career as a primary teacher that I am now am powerfully drawn to the lure of island life and living intimately connected to this unique island and to the water surrounding it in all directions.

Well versed in social media (Facebook, Blogger & Twitter) as a result of earning my Graduate Diploma in Educational Technology at the University of Calgary I bring both my diverse experience and background gained during my diverse career in schools in Alberta, British Columbia and California as well as new century technological awareness and know how to this new opportunity.

Hence even though my application is pushing on the deadline for consideration I have worked at updating my art blogs including this one to present my petition to become the FIRST artist in residence at The Haven.

Thank you for your consideration.     Sincerely,  Joanne Babiak

        

References

International (English as a Second Language) Teacher Training Organization,

Guadalajara, Mexico, February, 2012
http://www.teflcertificatecourses.com/tefl-courses-north-central.php

Educational and Experiential Background:

 

Visual Arts

Okanagan School of the Arts/   Penticton/Fiction and Documentary Filmmaking
www.osarts.com/

Vernon Community Arts Center/  Collage
http://www.vernonarts.ca

Soul Collage Workshop in Vancouver
http://soulcollage.com

Vancouver Island School of the Arts/  Mixed Media
http://www.vancouverislandschoolart.com/imagepages/collagecreativity.html

Gulf Island Film and Television School/   Black & White Super 8 Experimental Film
Nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Super 8 Experimental Film  at EyeLens Film Festival

The New Road   Length: 4:16
Produced during the Adult Media Intensive Program (March 17 - 23, 2002) by Krystal Kehoe, Jake Gilchrist, and Joanne Babiak. A man finds himself alone and a stranger in a strange place. While hitchhiking, he is picked up by an unusual couple. The film relates what happens to him enroute to The New Road.
Screened at the EyeLens Festival on Galiano Island & Beach Blanket Film Festival in Penticton
Type in The New Road on the search box to view on http://www.giftsfilms.com/film-library
or go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXxBfc3KAXo 

Have crewed as production assistant on number of short films and a television pilot (Tomorrow's Memoirs)  http://www.tomorrowsmemoir.com/home and a Canadian Feature Length Film, 'Ill Fated' directed by Mark Lewis  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcGAKyBEtao

Production Assistant for Bravo! funded short film, 'Dance of the Little Old Men' directed by Kulchera Matson  http://dotlom.wordpress.com

Escuela International Cine y Television/   Havana, Cuba in summer of 2010
Documentary Filmmaking/ 11 minute documentary called, 'Nowhere Man'
which was premiered at the Ryerson Latin American Film Festival in Toronto, Ontario in November 2010  http://www.ucl.ac.uk/spanish-latinamerican/doc_cuba

NOWHERE MAN was filmed on location in Old Havana, Cuba during the summer of 2010. This eleven minute documentary chronicles the plight of a balsero (or raft person) from the Mariel Boat Lift in the early 80s and how he successfully escaped the oppressive communist Castro regime on an inner tube raft on the Florida Strait in eight hours only to find himself deported back to Havana twenty years later older but perhaps no wiser. We follow Roberto during a typical day as a street hustler preying upon tourists in Vieje Habana as he struggles to supplement his meager income acting as a tour guide as well as attempting to plot his way out of Cuba once more.  The next time for good.
   
American premiere:  Ellensburg International Film Festival October 2011
http://www.ellensburgfilmfestival.com/index.html
Trailer for 'Nowhere Man' 
http://indieflix.com/festivalsonline/EFF2011/films/33145/ 


Most recently I was a researcher for an Islands Trust documentary project and spent 3 weeks on Galiano Island at the Gulf Island Film and Television School in October of 2011. I worked for Gumboot Film Productions.

Emily Carr University/   Mixed Media Program/
 'The Built Surface'  http://www.ecuad.ca/programs/courses/CEPN/165

Active Membership in Ajijic Society of the Arts in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico  http://ajijicart.weebly.com/

Coming up: Attendance at Nick Bantlock's 'The Trickster's Tail' Collage Class in July, 2012 

 http://www.nickbantock.com/workshops.php

I've also facilitated two out for the three Julia Cameron Artist Way books, The Artist Way and Walking in the World. I'm starting Finding Water next month with an online Artist Way Facebook group. 

 http://juliaameronlive.com

I've also starting an online daily art journalling class with Shelly Klammer in Vancouver called ' Empower Yourself Through Creativity'  

http://www.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/courses/courseoverview.cgi?cid=316

Performing Arts

  
In the performing arts realm, I have been the prop mistress and set dresser for three community theatre companies and am very interested in the Gabriola Island Little Theatre company now that I know that a relocation to Vancouver Island is imminent. Next winter, I plan to get involved with the Lake Chapala Little Theatre which is Mexico's longest standing English speaking live theatre with their own playhouse right in San Antonio up the careterra from Ajijic where I spent the last winter. 

 http://www.accesslakechapala.com/2011/07/18/the-lakeside-little-theater-in-san-antonio-tlayacapan/

Past Production Pictures of Sets for 'Maggie's Getting Married', 'Don't Dress For Dinner', & 'Nurse Jane Goes to Hawaii' for Many Hats Theatre Company in Penticton

http://www.manyhatstheatre.com/Page/Past_Productions/Past_Productions.html

Bare Bones Theatre Company   'On Golden Pond', 'The Odd Couple' & 'Crimes of the Heart'

Summerland Singers and Players   'Nuncrackers' & 'The Best Little Christmas Pageant Ever'

http://www.summerlandtheatre.ca/default.html

Progress Theatre Company   Prop Mistress for  'Wit',  Screen Projectionist for 'Merchant of Venice' & Producer/Set Designer/Dresser for 'Boom!' A play by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb  

Do you have a date for the apocalypse?

Jules, a grad student in marine biology, and Jo, a journalism student, meet one Saturday night in Jules’s small underground laboratory on a university campus, after Jo answers Jules’s online personal ad offering an encounter that promises “sex to change the course of the world.” During his research on a deserted tropical island, Jules discovered patterns among the behavior of fish that seemed to portend a premature end to most forms of earthly life. So he has turned his tiny lab/ apartment into a place to wait out the disaster and begin remaking humanity. Will he be successful or are we heading for the 'Big Bang' end game?

http://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/entertainment/121737079.html 

Screen Projection for 'Girl Talk' for Penticton and District Womens' Centre

Director/Producer and Set Designer for 23 Live Performances of The Nativity Story for  the 'Walk to Bethlehem' Christmas event at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church on Martin Street in Downtown Penticton, December 2007

Art Blogs for Luna Azul Mixed Media & Film Flam Productions

Digital Sketch IPad Art Journal
> http://digital-sketch.blogspot.ca/

Film Flam Productions
> http://www.filmflamproductions.blogspot.ca

Graduate School Art Blog 
 >http://cybersketchblog.blogspot.ca/?zx=864cf49ab510ce9e

Artist in Residence Application for The Haven on Gabriola Island

Yesterday I got a response from an enquiry about applying to be the Artist in Residence in late September on Gabriola Island. Once more this small, picturesque Gulf Island is on my 'radar' while I pack up my life in the Okanagan and relocate to the coast likely mid island in the Nanaimo/Gabriola Island area. I am currently looking at places to rent or buy that would be affordable when I sell my 1817 Heritage/Character house in downtown Penticton. The deadline for applications is March 31rst so the 'meter is running' this week to put together an integrated package of support materials showcasing my current and past artistic practice as well as my relevant educational background. Since the home inspector is coming for the whole morning tomorrow I will be stationed at my favourite coffee haunt, Blenz downtown pulling the elements together as well as going to London Drugs to scan through my hundreds and hundreds of Cuba and Mexico pictures to cull those that are worth sending in my mini portfolio. Yes, it will be a very busy week on both the domestic and artistic front!

TripAdvisor Snafu

Apparently blogger does not allow links to TripAdvisor so you will just have to take my word for it or check out the site yourself. Simply go to www.tripadvisor.com and type in Ajijic Suites and my review is the very first one!

Flux

Once again I am in a muy grande state of flux and once again I feel compelled to return to the Finding Water book of Julia Cameron's trilogy of Artist Way Books. With my house on the market now for just two weeks on Monday and eight showings and two offers it seems like I'm in some kind of free fall buffeting around with the winds of change which is both exciting and terrifying. Just last year I was in love and the man who I thought was a 'keeper' was planning to share my space. Just last year he arrived at my door with his Tracker on a flat bed truck with a blown out motor because he hadn't checked the oil before he headed out to 'drive all night' as Celine Dion sings to get to me. Just last year, I was nervous and excited at this wondrous turn of events especially as my right leg was encapsulated with a cast due to an unfortunate fall and break stepping on the edge of a flagstone at the bottom of my stairs. Snap; all things for me changed then as I was unable to go as a volunteer for the To Mexico With Love trip to the Baja and all things for me have changed since I was able to spend four months in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico as a first time and basically 'accidental' snowbird. It wasn't my idea to go there but I embraced the lifestyle and I tapped into the wonderfully vibrant snowbird community there and did all kinds of interesting things. Some of which are chronicled on my TripAdvisor review of Mexico and Ajijic Suites.