Terrain Residency 2022 Artists in Residence

Terrain Exhibitions is happy to announce our Terrain Residency 2022 Artists in Residence.  After reviewing the applicants  we received our Residency Committee selected Millicent Kennedy for one of the two opportunities and collaborative duo Evelyn Davis-Walker / Kristy Woudstra for the other.. Thank you to everyone who applied this year for their time and energy putting together their applications. Also a big thank you to our volunteers from the Terrain Exhibitions Residency committee for their hard work reviewing the applications and making their selections. Finally Terrain Exhibitions thanks Terrain Residency Committee chair Allison Lacher who is stepping down from this role for their work establishing and developing our residency program. Without Allison’s work none of this would have been possible.  

Evelyn Davis-Walker and Kristy Woudstra

Evelyn Davis-Walker and Kristy Woudstra’s collaboration stems from their work as makers, activists and artists.

During the Terrain residency, Evelyn Davis-Walker and Kristy Woudstra will work together to develop a collaborative stop motion workshop series designed especially for children and young adults. 

Storytelling is a powerful communication tool and moving images help reach an even wider audience. As a form of play therapy, their  workshop, Social Storytelling through Stop Motion will be geared to help young participants (a.k.a. youth directors) learn the art of storytelling through stop-motion animation. They will use Grumpy Faces, a series of unique, handmade woodland and Arctic creatures. They are created by Kristy Woudstra. As a professor of art and storytelling, Evelyn Davis-Walker has extensive experience teaching people of all ages how to communicate visually. The goal of our workshop is for young adults to connect with doll characters provided at the residency and use the creatures as actors in a story with a theme that is of interest to them, whether it is environmental issues, inclusivity, bullying, acceptance, overcoming anxiety, etc... There will be three touch-points with the young directors. The first being an information session; the second being a one-on-one appointment  to create their stop motion animation; the last interaction is the “movie premiere” event.

Evelyn Davis-Walker, Morton Salt, Digital collage and yarn on canvas, 44” x 66”, July 2020

Evelyn Davis-Walker holds a B.A. in Visual Communication and Computer Art from Otterbein University and an M.F.A. in Advertising Design from Marywood. Evelyn is a graphic designer; a maker; an educator; and a socially engaged art activist. She has a strong affinity for all things paper – from mixed media collage, to creating typographical prints on her letterpress machine. She has received numerous awards and has exhibited in solo, group and juried exhibitions nationally and internationally. In 2010, Evelyn was awarded 25 for 25 AOL International Art Grant where 25 winners (9,000 applicants) were funded $25,000. Evelyn designed individual memory games for 200 Alzheimer’s patients. In 2015, Evelyn received the Otterbein University Young Alumni Recipient for Community Engagement as a result of her game design’s activism. 

She has taught graphic design at the university-level for over 14 years and has run her design business with her husband for the last 20 years. Evelyn teaches socially conscious forms of storytelling such as children’s books, board game design and stop motion animations, to help students develop a sense of ownership, identity and agency to address topics of diversity and inclusion. 

Kristy Woudstra, Perspective (46" x 46") Quilt

Kristy Woudstra is based in the beautiful downtown east-side of Hamilton, Ontario, in Canada, where she wears several creative hats. As features editor of Broadview, Canada's oldest magazine, she explores stories of justice, ethics and spirituality. As a writer, she has authored many magazine stories and the book Highrise: The Towers in the World and the World in the Towers. As a textile artist, she expresses her thoughts and emotions through the centuries-old practice of quilting with her minimalist, modern designs. And as a maker, Kristy designs and hand sews a sustainable and inclusive line of Arctic and woodland creatures called Grumpy Faces. As the kid of very practical Dutch immigrants, she is heavily influenced by her culture and experiences, and she is grateful for every moment she has to write, doodle and create.

WEB  www.evelyndaviswalker.com / KristyWoudstra.com

INSTAGRAM  @profdaviswalker

Millicent Kennedy

Millicent Kennedy’s art practice collaborates with  materials and time through performance, fiber, and print. The themes explored in her work often pivot on the tension between labor, and impermanence.

For the Terrain Residency Kennedy will host local participants as part of their community workshop “What We Kept.” Participants will volunteer to share stories and be interviewed about items that they have held onto and decide to donate for the making  of a larger artwork. This is a community extension of an ongoing series in the artist’s practice taking abandoned or broken items, and quilting them into fabric, creating a shroud that preserves, buries, and gives them new life.

Fractured Fan, Broken Fan quilted into fabric, 60 x 65 inches, 2021

The goals of this residency will be to complete a large public textile artwork with donated items from this workshop, as well as create an edition of artist books archiving photographs of the items donated with their stories. This large collaborative artwork will be displayed on the porch of the Enos Park duplex, alongside the draft of the artist book for visitors and participants to look through. This common meeting place of the porch will serve as exhibition space and public studio for the artist, hosting “office hours” when visitors are welcome to observe, ask questions, or just talk and have tea.

Upon the completion of the residency, Kennedy will complete the artist book, with the same name as the workshop, and provide one for each of the participants, as well as some available for sale.

Kennedy serves as the Curator of Exhibitions at the Fine Arts Center Gallery in Northeastern Illinois University and has previously served as the Gallery Director at Rockford University, She currently teaches classes and workshops in and around Chicago, where her studio is located.

She received her Bachelor's Degree from Northeastern Illinois University and her MFA from Northern Illinois University where she was awarded the Helen Merritt Fellowship. She's received solo exhibitions from Belong Gallery, SXU Art Gallery, Roman Susan and Parlour and Ramp, as well as site specific installations with Terrain Exhibitions Biennial, and Purple Window Gallery. She has received artist residencies in Chicago, Mississippi, and Michigan. 

Website: https://www.millicentkennedy.com/

Instagram: @Millicentkennedystudios