International Artist in Residence Program

How a tiny group of artists reach out to the whole world!

We are very excited to announce that we are presently collaborating with BallardWorks to develop a residency program. We are looking at various possibilities that would include access to the Sev Shoon print center as well as a live-in studio for a reasonable fee. We hope that this new program will be ready sometime in 2012. Please check back in December 2011.

This new program is based on the experiences we have accumulated in past years, when we have invited several international artists to Sev Shoon.

In 2004, Enrique Gijon came from Oaxaca, Mexico with his goal to learn as much as he could about the art world here and to create a new body of his own work. While hanging out with all the “regulars” and having a great time, Enrique worked both in etching and woodcarving.

In 2007, C. Krydz Ikwuemesi, Professor of Fine Art at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), spent two weeks in a BallardWorks private studio creating a series of acrylic paintings and watercolors. He also used Sev Shoon to collaborate on an etching with owner Dionne Haroutunian. His time with us evolved into Dionne’s traveling as a US State Department’s Cultural Envoy to teach printmaking at UNN in 2009

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Also in 2007, Ingrid Duch visited Seattle from Denmark and spent two weeks at Sev Shoon where she created a series of monotypes inspired by U.S. car and truck magazines. Trained in traditional printmaking techniques, Ingrid used this opportunity as a time to be experimental; she pushed that to the point of simply painting images on our glass-covered tables, covering them with paper and printing by hand. She was elated by this newly found spontaneity.

In 2009, Natasha Pestich, Assistant Professor and Print Paper Book Area Head at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, spent some of her summer break in Seattle. She found that having uninterrupted time to devote to her artwork so enjoyable that she practically locked herself up at Sev Shoon and worked! She will have to return to discover how wonderful Seattle is, especially in summer.

In 2010, Dionne invited UNN’s ceramic/installation artist, Ngozi Omeje, to travel to Seattle and create an installation. Ngozi split her time between Pottery Northwest where she created between 2,500-3,000 tiny clay cups, and Sev Shoon, where she assembled the cups to create a gigantic teacup installation. She found inspiration in our unusually cold spring as she wondered how many cups of tea she would need to drink to keep warm! Her final piece is now on display in our center.

All of our guests were a joy to host and a wonderful addition our community of artists.

Their friendship, their presence and their works of art are a great display of Sev Shoon’s essence: community within and community throughout the world!