How to summarise my experience of an ‘in house’ weekend residency at The Grange, west Norfolk? I’ve come away, a couple of days since it finished, still feeling equally depleted (fatigued in my brain-body) and energised (in my artistic practice potential). I had almost forgotten what it’s like to be valued and validated as an artist — a chosen identity that comes from deep within (threading my pre-ABI identity and present life).
I had set out some loose weekend intentions for myself to make the most of this precious time. I wanted to experiment with some key new approaches and ideas in this lightly critically supported space – enough structure to keep me focused, but not too rigid as my capacity at each moment will always be the primary guide of any activity (or not) with a dedicated practice of pacing woven throughout.
My concept to explore for the weekend was ‘drawing with and through the disabled brain-body’, which builds upon around a year of attempts, trials and arts-based goal-focused neuro physio.
Nicola and John – our generous host-artists at The Grange set me up in a private makeshift workspace for the duration. For access reasons, I stayed overnight at a holiday let property with my husband; an open plan place where I could have my care needs supported. The weekend’s studio at The Grange was mostly dominated by a bed, which neatly resonated and became a canvas for much of my artistic experimentation. Along with the bed, I had a desk to park my wheelchair under, a huge drawing board, plenty of natural light and a large sofa for resting with heated blankets – the perfect set-up!
Taking part in the residency has been a long time coming. Not only with next month being the 3-year anniversary of my hospital discharge since Acquired Brain Injury, but also the past year of my neuro physio practice being geared towards my goal of adapting my arts practice, with a view to moving my whole body for drawing (of course including the art of ‘plan – pace – prioritise’ with pre-resting and strategic planning in the lead up to any event or activity).
My full body drawing through bed-based full body movement experiments on A1x2 paper led to some further thoughts about the incidental creases and tears in my gestural documents becoming a nod towards the unacknowledged assistance which helps make my practice possible. I then made a second piece drawn with white crayon on more white A1 sheets – to further allude to the (in)visible network around me. For this second piece, after my movement drawing, I hand wrote lines of my internal monologue and the remembered verbal guidance from my physio in how to make those moves. This movement was also documented in stop motion (a ‘straight’ film felt too slick for something I’m still learning). I think the shimmering flickers of stop-motion is well suited to my spasticity-stiff newly learned movements.
I came away with renewed inspiration and enthusiasm for my artistic practice and identity! But for now, I will rest, pace and recover whilst the weekend sifts and settles.
Secondly, my aim was to adapt my necessary mobility aids for drawing – which I was able to make some starts on during Saturday, with 1-2-1 support from my PA/Support Worker Amy.
I found myself continually drawn to the branching form on this weekend, as I have in the past few months – trees and streams to mirror neurological & vascular networks, flowing and broken.
So with assistance, I turned by dullest council-given walking stick into an extended drawing tool.
In my mentoring session with Nicola and John, J mentioned the work of Rebecca Horn, whose works originally inspired this idea which I first had early attempts at in February 2025 for an OriginalProjects; participatory workshop session I led in response to St John’s church in Great Yarmouth.
As well as the mentoring 2-1 session with Nicola and John, I loved spending time in sharing & conversation with the artist cohort, over delicious home-cooked meals!
It was fascinating hearing and seeing an insight into the working practices of the other artists.
Such an enriching and valuable time. Despite not engaging in every single thing on offer owing to the barriers of my own disability, which included me choosing to pace and rest over pushing to the edges, so that I could get the most out of the time without it burning me out on top of the inevitable fatigue and re-adjustment expected for doing a new thing!
Thank you Nicola & John and the most perfectly complimentary cohort:
Genevieve Rudd | Giannini Hemmings | Victoria Rance |Harley Jones | Bela Emerson |Beth Duggleby.
+ huge gratitude to my husband Pete and PA/Access support worker Amy Woods for the assistance to make it happen.
