The following artists will be in residence during the
CONVERGENCE 2018 Texture of Time artist residency
at Green Olive Arts, from March 8 – April 4, 2018
SALMA ARASTU Born into the Sindhi Hindu tradition in her native India, she later embraced Islam through her marriage. Salma now resides in the US where she seeks to embody these Eastern spiritual practices in her calligraphy and painting on large canvases. Her paintings demonstrate her heart to “enlighten and awaken the spiritual connection of universal humanity through lyrical and fluid imagery of Arabic Calligraphy and Islamic patterns.” During the CONVERGENCE 2018 residency, Salma hopes to continue the work she has begun towards this goal, weaving in the new experiences of immersion and creative community in Tetouan. www.salmaarastu.com
DIANE ARENBERG Diane has found her home for inspiration in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, where she is influenced by the ancient rock formations, river beds and colorful pueblo culture. Whether painting, jewelry making or printmaking, she is moved by the “duality of ancient and ephemeral” to capture th e heart of a place and its story. For her work in CONVERGENCE 2018, Diane plans to consider the similarities between Ghost Ranch and Tetouan, as places of shared “deeply embedded connection to art, music … and ornament, to convey and keep alive the stories of their Ancestors.” www.dianearenberg.com
RACHEL MAXI As a child from a big family in Ohio, Rachel discovered great satisfaction in making art, and after pursuing studies in art and later moving to Seattle, Washington, she sought to capture the environment and light from her surroundings. She still takes great joy in the materials and processes she has learned, though her work has taken a turn toward abstraction in recent years. She says, “I would like to articulate that nature includes the stimulus of my environment, urban decay, graffiti, compositions in landscape and architecture, patterns, textures, textiles, and the paint itself.” www.rachelmaxi.com
NATALIE MOFFITT An American who spent much of her childhood with her family in Kenya, Natalie has learned to be a listener and student of other cultures. Behind her aim of continuing to explore abstract painting and sculptural installation during the CONVERGENCE 2018 residency is her desire to process her own identity and worldview as a product of two very different cultures. With this potential for bridge-building she hopes to deepen her work with “the concept of peace making, and how it relates to art making, across cultural barriers and other boundaries.” www.nataliemoffitt.com
ROBIN PRZYBYSZ A native of Southern California, Robin has found her dual passions in teaching art and in making textile art that brings healing and strength to women with a shattered past, as it has done for her own. Her focus for the CONVERGENCE 2018 residency will be in the generational links and textures of DNA which shape our lives as creators. “The skills I perform and the designs I fashion in my artwork become my symbolic language. For me, as a process artist, it is the physical act of drawing, burning, or sculpting lines and forms that I find myself in an introspective trance.” www.artintexture.com
MIA VILLANUEVA A Pilipina-American who grew up in the US, Mia has taken to filmmaking as her chosen art. During the CONVERGENCE 2018 residency she will be working on her current screenplay, allowing the similarities and contrasts of Tetouan with the Philippines to influence her writing. Her screenplay surrounds the life of a young 11 year old girl named Trixie who hails from one of the most impoverished and drug-enslaved slums in Manila. Mia’s aim is to “take the viewer on an imaginative and dangerous adventure that’s portrayed as genuine at the same time.” www.grimylove.com