Travels

Dissolution at CASP Studios/806 Collective

| Tonja Torgerson

From February 27th to March 2nd, artist-in-residence Tonja Torgerson transformed the 806 Collective Space at the Charles Adams Studio Project into Dissolution, a dystopic Garden of Eden filled with images of flora, insects, and decomposing figures. Wheat-pasting screen-printed collages of both symbolic and local plants, the artist provided an intimate pause for the audience to contemplate the uncomfortable nature of mortality, impermanence, and the frailty of the body in a lush but bleak environment.

This project was created with the help of students from Texas Tech School of Art and the Lubbock community. The results of the project were on view to the public in Studio C at CASP during the March 3rd First Friday Art Trail. This project was presented by the printmaking area of the TTU School of Art with support from the John T. & Ryla F. Lott Endowment for Excellence in the Visual Arts, and in collaboration with the 806 Collective and the Charles Adams Studio Project.

More information here.

Last Days

| Tonja Torgerson

The elusive cloud berry plant (above and below) known locally as bakeapples.

Finishing up my time on Fogo Island. Sad to miss the ripening of the many wild berries on the island, still weeks away, but my time here must end.  It has been an incredible experience, and I will miss this place.

Little Fogo Islands

| Tonja Torgerson

Today the weather was nice enough for a trip to Little Fogo Islands (a group of very small islands about 5 miles off the north coast of Fogo Island).

It was a trip which saw hundreds and hundreds of puffins, being a nesting grounds for the small birds. No one lives there permanently anymore, though people still return during the summer season.

| Tonja Torgerson


Now halfway through my residency on Fogo Island. I am continuing to explore the island and have now seen all the Fogo Island Arts Corp/Shorefast Foundation artist studios currently constructed, including the Squish Studio in Tilting (top) and the Bridge Studio in Deep Bay.

There are three Artist in Residency programs on Fogo Island; one in based in Tilting, the one I am involved in based in the community of Fogo, and studios/homes of the Fogo Island Arts Corp which are spread throughout the island.

| Tonja Torgerson

Adventures on Fogo Island. Went to see a dead sperm whale that washed up in Joe Batt’s Arm. The lower jaw had been removed, but the rest of it was still mostly intact. I have my fingers crossed to see some live whales by boat in the next week or two. On the same walk we saw the Long Studio of the Shorefast Foundation and the sculpture of the Great Auk on a far tip of the coast.  It was an amazing day.