Photo Sophie Anna Gibbings

Joya: AiR / Lauren Taylor / residency coordinator

I am interested in how creativity can be used as a tool to improve and navigate our wellbeing and mental health. I discovered my love for art during my MSc in Psychology and this has remained an important part of my life. Since graduating I have worked in schools supporting young people to understand and process their emotions. I now volunteer with older adults living with dementia and run community art groups with a focus on enjoying the process. I hope to continue combining my background in psychology with my interest in art and to find more ways to make creativity feel accessible and joyous.

Lauren Taylor.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: guest curator / Sophie Anna Gibbings / USA

Sophie has returned to Joya: AiR as our guest curator. She was here in September 2022 as a resident artist, working primarily with performance and sculpture, using materials found in the landscape and returning them to the landscape at the end of her residency. Sophie recently organized and developed her own collaborative artist residency in Margate, UK and hopes to continue to bring artists together through these residencies and curate exhibitions around the theme of regeneration.

 On Sophie’s practice…

 “I reference the practices of regenerative agriculture as an entry point to my work. My process is more about an ecology of the mind, rather than a regeneration of soil. All the materials used for my artworks are found in the landscape and can be returned to the Earth, without any harm to her. It is at this intersection of material and landscape that I explore the core values of my work.

I don’t see myself separate from nature but rather as two artists working together. Performance is the beginning of this collaboration, often referencing my own body as it relates to nature’s body. Using different mediums, including printmaking, alternative process photography, painting, and sculpture, I am exploring how an initial performance done in the landscape can lead to many different bodies of work.

These works are ephemeral, and I have no attachment to their permanence, as we all come from nature and return to nature. By creating an opportunity for non-logical encounters with my art, I intend to increase the viewers sensibility to the environment. I am interested in what happens to the materials after and beyond their time on display, and how this consideration might help regenerate ecologies.”

Sophie Anna Gibbings

Sophie was born in Santa Barbara, California and has lived in the UK for the past 3 years. She received her Bachelor’s degree in photography from Lesley University College of Art and Design. She recently earned her Master’s in Art in Contemporary Photography: Practices and Philosophies at Central Saint Martins. She was awarded the University of The Arts, London Art for the Environment Residency (AER) at Domaine de Boisbuchet, France. Sophie was shortlisted for the University of The Arts, London Maison/0 This Earth Award. She is currently exhibiting her work as part of the Art for the Environment exhibition at GroundWork Gallery in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, UK until June 2024. Other recent exhibitions include Meant to Fade, Laneway Gallery, Cork, IE, Impermanent, Safehouse Gallery, London and a performance for Dance for the Sky, Slash Arts Gallery Houseboat, London.

Sophie’s website: https://www.sophieannagibbings.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sophieannagibbings/

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Pardeep Nijjar / GBR

‘I arrived at Joya: AiR to reconnect with a craft I had been struggling to reignite. 

 This wonderful residency has the ability to suspend time. My only marker of time here, is the solar ascent and descent. There is time (without being located in time) for awe. Awe in the landscape, the scale of it, from up high as lower and lower into the valley; the shifting light, the details, the sounds – my favourite being the silence. Not the manufactured silence of ear buds and noise cancelling headphones or simply a lack of traffic, but silence that is palpable. How can silence be the absence of sound when the silence is so vast and so void that it sits upon me, heavy, lead-like, a natural vacuum. A silence that is magnetic – polar attraction – the positive and negative side to the butt end of emotions. Emotions that are central to creating art. A silence and space, endless space that creates a sense of suspension in time.

 I thought I needed to remove myself from distractions in order to write. But actually, being here, what I have learned is that the distractions need only be conducive to writing, not absent. The distractions here are the details in the splitting almond on the tree outside my studio window. The vulture hovering ahead. The hourly movement of the sun across the window. The moments of silence. When distractions are so sweet, so precious like these, they need a new word to describe them – no longer distractions, they are the writer’s stimuli. My time at Joya has stimulated my writing in a way I had hoped, but couldn’t have imagined.

Pardeep Nijjar

Pardeep lives in Nottingham and holds a BA in Arabic and International Relations and an MA in Diplomacy.
He is a project consultant Civil Servant for Central government by day and a writer by passion.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Victoria Moy / USA

Being at Joya: AiR is living in a museum surrounded by beautiful curated works of art, except this museum also feels like a home. Meanwhile, art being newly made and a sanctuary of natural beauty also surround us.

On a 6:30am hike with fellow artists Leo and Ana, I climbed the equivalent of 52 flights of stairs. At the peak, with the glowing sun rising, we enjoyed delicious coffee and breakfast. Then Leo surprised us with packets of clay to make art with! and to leave for others to find when they visit, as we acknowledged our and our arts' impermanence and the beauty in that.

At sunset on most days, I'd walk an hour taking in amazing cloud formations when they were out, spotting different colored rocks and stones, while being greeted by lively bird chirps, and passing rows of almond and pomegranate trees. My tracker would say I'd climbed 21 flights, and I didn't even feel any of the "work."

I got to read a 30-minute-long short story by the fireplace in an impromptu sharing after a few days of working on it to generous listeners who gave thoughtful feedback. Sitting in front of the fireplace each night sharing stories with fellow artists before a delicious dinner made by Donna is another highlight.

With artists coming and going constantly, we would tease each other about who'd be remembered and missed and which of us would be forgotten quickly. Like in nature and in life, there is beauty in the impermanence. I enjoyed the privilege of being a part of the landscape, being a part of varying cycles and turnarounds, engaging with continually changing lots. Whether we're remembered, by some, or not at all, we are still each a part of this space's history.

I'm grateful to Donna and Simon for making such a beautiful dream-like experience also a reality.

Victoria Moy


Victoria Moy is an American author, librettist, playwright, and filmmaker born and raised in New York. She's a 2023-2024 Opera America IDEA grantee. She's the author of "Fighting for the Dream: Voices of Chinese American Veterans from World War II to Afghanistan" and has a B.A. in Theater and M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing.

VictoriaMoy.net
IG @writervickymoy @owlsmarch

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Leonardo Uribe / COL

“My first artistic residency was two transformative weeks 

While I arrived without any expectations or project to develop, Joya: AiR offered me much to work with. A magical and secluded environment that allowed me to focus on my creative work once again.

The landscape encourages great ecological projects such as Joya: AiR itself.

I wandered through nature, climbed nearby mountains and collected materials that enriched my process.

Surrounded by people with generous hearts, knowledge and extraordinary talents, we connected and shared warm moments; often over delicious dinners hosted by our friendly hosts Donna and Simon.

These two weeks were an indelible chapter. A time I will long remember”.

Leonardo Uribe

Leonardo Uribe is a Colombian-born artist living in Australia. He graduated from University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and over the past 20 years has exhibited widely in galleries across Colombia, Venezuela and Australia. In 2021 his work was Highly Commended in the Dobell Drawing Prize #22 in Sydney, Australia.

“Mi primera residencia artística fueron dos semanas transformadoras

Si bien, llegué sin expectativas ni proyecto a desarrollar, La Joya AiR me ofreció mucho con qué trabajar. Un entorno mágico y apartado que me permitió centrarme una vez más en mi trabajo creativo.

El paisaje fomenta grandes proyectos ecológicos como el propio JOYA:Air.

Deambulé por la naturaleza, escalé montañas cercanas y recolecté materiales que enriquecieron mi proceso.

Me rodeé de personas de corazón generoso, conocimientos y talentos extraordinarios, conectamos y compartimos cálidos momentos; a menudo durante deliciosas cenas ofrecidas por nuestros amables anfitriones Donna y Simon.

Estas dos semanas fueron un capítulo imborrable. Un momento que recordaré por mucho tiempo”.

Leonardo Uribe

Leonardo Uribe es un artista nacido en Colombia que vive en Australia. Se graduó de la Universidad con una Licenciatura en Bellas Artes y durante los últimos 20 años ha expuesto ampliamente en galerías de Colombia, Venezuela y Australia. En 2021, su trabajo fue Highly Commended en el Premio de Dibujo Dobell # 22 en Sydney, Australia.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Shona McCombes / GBR

“I came to Joya: AiR at a transitional moment: one week after moving house, a week of living crowded among boxes and plastic and paint, I arrived in this space of absolute spaciousness, clean simple lines and sparse open landscapes and sky. Rooms uncluttered with the debris of everyday life – a place for the mind to roam around without stumbling on something that stops it short.

It was transitional in other ways, too, the season changing palpably through the course of my November week here. Subtler than the sulk of the northern winters I'm used to, where the sun slams the door on you and holds a long grudge; here it's more of a gradual cooling off, a gentle turning away.

Like other transient spaces, there's something suspended about Joya, a cocooning. But there's also something like a narrative thread: a coming and going of people who each weave their own small set of journeys, an exchanging of routes, a passing down of stories (the moonlight dance, the sunrise hike – moments I missed that became part of the lore of the place).

Sometimes, the outside punctures it. During that one November week: news from the Argentinian election, from the Dutch election, relentless news from Palestine. The book I was working on – set in the Netherlands (land of carefully controlled waters and slowly sinking foundations), backgrounded by the Brazilian election of 2018 (land of vibrant mix and violent clash) – starting to feel real again, in good and bad ways. The book had gone through a long lull, and maybe it had felt like those vicious forces were going through a lull too, for a moment, the biggest and brashest of them briefly quieted – but none of it really gone, of course. The world expands and contracts; the work continues”.

Shona McCombes

Shona McCombes is a writer from Glasgow. Her fiction has been published in Gutter Magazine, New Writing Scotland, 3:AM Magazine and Extra Teeth, among others.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Louise Frances Smith / GBR

“Before starting my residency at Joya: AiR, I planned to spend my 11 days drawing, reading and walking into the surrounding landscape. I knew there was clay there but had no fixed intentions of using it - however, the clay drew me in! It’s such a huge part of the landscape you can’t escape it. I collected it on my walks and made it into slip and inks (from red earth) to make my drawings - trying to capture some of the textures in the landscape (with paint brushes I made using local materials), the patterns of strata, rocks, clay; the shape the water erosion has left (but noticing the absence of water); the black clusters of moss on the rocks. There was so much to explore and so much I wanted to try to record.

With another artist we collected and processed some clay in the sun - slaking, sieving, drying, turning, wedging. At the end of each day after this, I sat and watched the sun disappear over the top of the mountains while I made with the clay - a piece that started to grow across a stone that was used when Joya AiR was a farm. It was wonderful to be able to process the clay and connect with the landscape in this way.

I’m extremely grateful to Donna and Simon, their ethos for Joya is truly inspiring and I’ve learnt so much - it’s filled me with aspiration to learn more about how I can bring this way of life back into my everyday life. I’m also very grateful to the other artists I connected with at the residency and their generosity in sharing stories and their work”.

Louise Frances Smith

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Nina Elema / NED

“Joya: AiR is such a special place where nature, art and warmth are naturally blending together. The residency gave me a lot of perspective. Waking up with the sheering of the birds, having walks enjoying the nature and its views surrounded by the beautiful valleys every single day was truly liberating.

A rare opportunity where we set up a painting studio outside under the late November sun. It was the perfect place to focus on experimentation within my painting practice, inspired by the landscapes, the drought and the natural resources. Spending time with other artists was truly inspiring, resulting in new interest in new fields. Thank you Donna & Simon for the care and hospitality, and everyone that made this a wonderful experience”.

Nina Elema

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Henri Blommers / NED

“Het enige doel was geen doel, dat was mijn voornemen toen ik naar Joya reisde. Misschien wat schrijven en nadenken over de toekomst van mijn praktijk. En lezen en wat wandelen. Toen Simon de fourwheeldrive parkeerde bij het prachtig gelegen huis waar andere kunstenaars van de ondergaande zaten te genieten, voelde ik me gelijk thuis op deze magische plek. Een terp eigenlijk in een vallei met uitzicht rondom op bergen, amandel- en granaatappelbomen.

De volgende ochtend schreef ik bij zonsopkomst in mijn dagboek op het ijzeren bankje buiten. Naast mij lag een klein hoofdje van klei, de volgende dag twee en later zou ik overal kunstwerken aantreffen, zelfs een handgeschreven tekst van Zelda Salomon had de tijd doorstaan.

Na mijn eerste koffie begon ik aan wandelingen. Het woeste en tegelijkertijd gelidtekende landschap weerkaatste het frisse winterlicht en gaf een prachtige gloed. Al die witte omgeploegde boomgaarden en verlaten huizen, raakten me. Het daar zijn, alles kunnen, maar niets hoeven. Ruiken aan alle kruidige planten, takjes meenemen van rozemarijn, distels, stenen, het was allemaal heel zinnelijk. Voor ik het wist was ik papier aan het bekladderen met modder of fruitschillen en experimenteerde ik met van alles en nog wat met Vilém Flusser fluisterend in mijn oor om fotografische industriële processen te doorbreken.

Het hoogtepunt van de dag moest dan nog komen, de altijd klaarstaande - vanwege al mijn experimenten- en lieve  Donna en haar maaltijden. Toen ik opperde dat er een Joya receptenboek moest komen, begon de groep keihard te lachen. De vorige groep had dit ook al geopperd en de huidige groep zal waarschijnlijk hetzelfde opperen.

Na terugkomst hield ik tot op de dag hetzelfde ritme vast, spelen en experimenteren zijn de leidraad het doel dient zich altijd zelf wel onderbewust aan. Bedankt Simon en Donna voor wat een geweldige plek jullie hebben gecreëerd. Ik hoop tot snel”.

Henri Blommers

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AIR / Laurie Kemp / NED

“Joya: Air art residency is a magical place where poems start bubbling up at 4 a.m., your heart bursts into song upon seeing the sun set the sky aflame into a thousand glittering colours and the desert wind stills even the most over-active of minds. My writing residency was the perfect kickstart to writing my first novel.

I cried and ran and danced among the almond fields, and found inspiration, community and connection — to my inner muse, my fellow artists and Donna and Simon, Joya’s incredible hosts. ¡Nos vemos pronto, espero! Thank you for a fabulous time ♥️”

Laurie Kemp

Laurie holds a BA in Liberal Arts & Sciences and MSc is in Environmental Economics and additionally completed a year long course in Creative Writing, University of Amsterdam, 2017-2018

Meesterproef, Querido Academia, 2019-2020
Querido Academy is part of Querido, is a leading Dutch publishing house that admits up to 15 young authors per year to help them bring their ideas intro fruition and connect them to literary agencies.

Publication: The Octopus Woman, Voices of the Well, December, 2019 a magazine published by the Anima Mundi School, a learning and research center for the Feminine & the World Soul based on the psychology of Carl G. Jung.

Publication: Deliverance, Voices of the Well, December, 2022
Black-and-white drawings and corresponding poems detailing a year of loss, mourning and profound personal transformation.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Lucy Peters / GBR

“Joya: AiR is such an impressive project: an ecologically self-sustainable homestead which Simon and Donna share with a varied and ever-changing band of artists. To be in residence was an opportunity for me to invest time in my creative work, and a rare chance to do so alongside other writers, in company with painters, photographers, sculptors and conceptual artists. Days in the studio were punctuated by cups of coffee, cats visiting my window, and walks through an arid, mountainous landscape, spectacular and strange. In the evenings, residents shared moreish vegetarian meals prepared by Donna. I was so grateful for Joya’s cloistered calm and the connections that I made there”. 

Lucy Peters

Lucy’s short stories have been published in Mslexia, Structo, Ellipsis, The Citron Review and Mslexia’s Best Women’s Short Fiction 2023. Her poetry has been published in a Three of Cups anthology and the magazine Strix. Her novel-in-progress, The Child’s Bargain, has been shortlisted for the First Novel Prize 2023 and longlisted for the Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers Prize 2023.  

She won second prize in the Vogue Talent Contest 2010, was a runner-up in Mslexia’s Flash Fiction Competition 2023, was shortlisted in the Bridport Prize Flash Fiction Competition 2019, and was longlisted in the Bath Flash Fiction Award 2019 and the Mslexia Flash Fiction Competition 2020. 

Lucy has a degree in English Literature from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway, the University of London. For over a decade, she has worked as an editor, copywriter and journalist, specialising in art and culture.

Freelance writer and editor

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-peters-b6084442/

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Pilar Gimenez / ARG

"This was my first art residency and the first of many to come. It was a transformative experience. It opened many new doors for me, both personally and artistically.
Joya: AiR is a very special place where you can find inspiration in nature; kindness among the residents; and comfort in the facilities and the delicious food :)
The residence is in the middle of the mountains. The only sound you hear is the wind passing through the trees, which sounds like a strong river. Every walk is a new discovery, from which you come back with a new "joya" of the landscape or your inner self. The direct relationship of the residence with the environment, being sustainable and off the grid, is very impressive, and gives me hope that alternative ways of living are possible and real.
I am very grateful for this experience and willing to come back at some point in the near future."

Pilar Gimenez

Pilar is a graphic designer and visual artist from Buenos Aires, based in Berlin.

@piligb_djhada 

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Katrien Simons / NED

"It was amazing having two full weeks to focus on my practice; to work, explore, be, experiment and dive into details.  To let nature and the land guide me, letting go of expectations and just surrender to what’s around.  To wander the area as if I were a child again. Touching, feeling, singing to the land, the dried up river and the trees.  Exploring, doing fieldwork, and connecting with the somewhat surreal landscape.

Then taking things into the studio and just play and experiment the rest of the day with materials from around. Telling me stories of the past, containing memories in paper. Teaching me about the Spanish land but also about me as an artist, my patterns, my ways..  

I loved how quiet it was.  And that you can wander for hours without running into a single person but instead encounter a family of wild boars.

Simon and Donna have created such a special place.  I'm very thankful for the beautiful time at Joya: AiR with all the other wonderful and inspiring artists.  Following each others dance moves underneath the stars on the last night topped it off :D"

Katrien Simons / instagram @katrienspuppets

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Tomotsugu Nakamura / JPN

‘We are all given 24 hours a day. if we live 85 years, we have 744,600 hours.

However, how we experience and live these hours is not the same.

I realized when I came here that we cannot experience the same time in the same way if we live in a different place.

Because here there is no sound, no animals live. I mean, all time has to face itself.

And I felt this.

The pressure to spend time in the present for future goals hits me like a big wave every day.

It is like when you feel the future is uncertain or when your competitors have achieved their goals.

But then it is important to fight this time with willpower.

That why I believe that fighting every day so we can seize opportunities when they arise will bring us closer to our goals’.

Tomotsugu Nakamura

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Andreas Scholz / IRE

DESI

 The boy,

Refusing to become an ‘ungeheueres Ungeziefer’

A fate suffered by so many others,

Decided that,

He would defy the paths,

Laid out before him,

He would not be bound,

By any external gaze.

And so,

When he awoke the next morning,

He put on his yellow-tinted glasses,

And parted ways with the dreams,

Bestowed upon him by others.

His metamorphosis now complete,

He claimed his destiny:

Desi,

His chosen name,

La Joya Dulce, sweet jewel,

The desiring one.

By Laurie Marie Kemp

Andreas Scholz, MRSS, MRPS, MSET

QTLS (SET); PGCE (UCL); M.F.A. (Goldsmiths); BA Hons (TU Dublin)

http://www.aindreasscholz.com/
instagram.com/aindreasscholz

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Marieli Pereira / ECU

I didn’t come to Joya: AiR with a specific project in mind, I wanted to allow myself to be influenced by the landscape, without any expectations or deadlines. When I arrived at Joya, I was welcomed by the most beautiful sunset. It’s a place where nature gives you various gifts, like the vast amount of clay, the intense smell of wild rosemary offering free aromatherapy, and the soft earthy tones of the natural pigments you can find in your morning walks.
For me Joya has been a nest, a safe space to create and share as I am and where I’m at as an artist. Being here allowed me to dive deeper, and tap into places within my own creativity, that I think can only happen in such a special space like this, and in fact my work started shifting and evolving as the days went by. I noticed myself being more open to explore new mediums and try new ways.
Thank you Simon and Donna for welcoming me into your home, for creating this wonderful experience for artists to flourish, and for your commitment to treat this planet with such love and respect that inspires us to make better choices to navigate on this earth.(and thank you Donna for the yummiest food)!
I am also thankful for the lovely people I was able to share this experience with and learn from. I hope we can cross paths again.

Marieli Pereira

Marieli is a designer and multidisciplinary artist from Ecuador based in Brooklyn, NY.
She obtained a degree in Design from Parsons The New School of Design and learned art from her mother at an early age. Her work has been a mix of mediums and styles ranging from painting, textile art, mixed media collage and digital illustration. Her sources of inspiration are, animals as magical beings and her culture. She is currently working as a freelance designer in the fashion industry and taking private commissioned paintings while on a journey of exploring, learning and finding new ways to express her creativity.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Henrietta McPhee / GBR

“To stay at Joya: AiR is an immediate immersion into an alternative way of existing; living simply, artistically, and attentively. Joya is situated high up, and I loved waking up in the morning in the clouds. Their moisture brings out the scent of rosemary, thyme, and pine growing on the hills. I enjoyed wandering in these hills, collecting fossils and other natural treasures. It was easy to focus on my work in this peaceful atmosphere.   

 During my stay I dug up some wild clay and used it to make sculptures, a mud beetle house and a snail-shell shaped dew catcher. When finished I placed them back in the land, joining some of the other artworks left by previous residents. I also made paintings on tiles of Fou Fou the family goat, the water catchment pool designed by Simon and Donna, and the beautiful landscape.   

 My stay at Joya and the hills of Velez Blanco will be very memorable. I met some lovely people, artists, playwrights, musicians.. We enjoyed delicious meals together prepared by Donna and had wonderful dinnertime conversations.  

I feel very privileged to have spent time at Joya: AiR and would love to return one day.  

Henrietta MacPhee

Henrietta MacPhee is a British artist whose practise is centred in clay. She graduated from City Lit in 2017 with a Diploma in Ceramics and works from her studio in South London.
Her work was selected for a number of prestigious shows in the UK including ‘Artworks’ organised by the Barbican Arts Group and curated by Turner prize contender Tai Shani.
In 2019 MacPhee was invited to present her work at the International Ceramics Festival in Aberystwyth, Wales as one of four artists selected for the Emerging Makers Award.
More recently her ceramic sculpture 'Banana fan' was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2020.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Daniel Doheny / CAN

“It was freeing to be in a place like Joya: AiR, lost in the mountains, with other artists who were all in process. Long quiet days where I could focus on my writing, then chat with everyone at the end of the day over dinner. The space in Joya is simple and relaxing, and for me, was all about letting things happen naturally.

Thanks again for everything!”

Daniel Doheny

Daniel is a comedic actor and writer from Vancouver, Canada. He has worked in feature films, television and theatre for the past decade. He has written for television and film, and performs his own work on stage.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Katie So / CAN

“I arrived at Joya: AiR in the dark—after sunset and without an idea of what my week there would look like.

By morning, after a coffee, after petting the dog, after feeding the goat, I understood that it’s best not to know what to expect from this sun bleached bastion at the top of a hill, far from everything else.

It’s quiet, for one thing. Quiet during the days, only my own self-deprecating thoughts to distract me—otherwise perfect for focus and reflection.

I drew a lot of rocks, a surprising amount of rocks.

After each evenings’ ritual of watching the sunset behind the hills, the tranquility of the day is disrupted by the residents sharing stories, methods, ideas, gripes about the world outside, all over a nourishing plate of food.

How much easier it is to be creative when you’re being fed and inspired, with space to think and make, unconcerned about the traffic of the commute home at the end of the day.

The pool isn’t half bad either”.

Katie So

Katie So is a multidisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, BC. Drawing on their acute sensitivity to sensory stimuli, Katie captures the essence of fleeting moments, infusing their practice with a keen sense of nostalgia and emotional depth. Their work serves as a poignant reflection on the subtleties of daily life, depicting snapshots of sensory impressions and the nuanced emotions tied to ephemeral memories.

Katie has showcased work in Canada and the US, and continues to diversify their studio practice by attending local and international artist residencies. 

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Michalina W Klasik / Paweł Szeibel / Joanna Zdzienicka

Joya: AiR / Michalina W. Klassik

I returned to Joya: arte +ecología after 5 years. When I was here the first time, I was starting to work on “The Secret Activism” project, which I am still developing. Returning to the place where the first works from this project were created, allowed me to observe the evolution of my own attitude. – At the beginning, I struggled with the subject of coping with the difficult knowledge of man's destructive activities towards nature, information about climate change and the associated 6th mass extinction of species. I was accompanied by a sense of shame and powerlessness. Over time, however, my attitude evolved into one of hope and a desire to act. Works started to appear that include reflections on the possibility of constructing new narratives, adopting a non-anthropocentric worldview. This need to create new, good stories about the world increasingly dominated what I was doing. I have also started to pay more attention to collaborative activities – in the arts, intra - and inter - university,  within the framework of “’academic kinship” – understood as ”'an intellectual and ethical relationship with a group sharing a common vision of the world, especially the principles of knowledge construction and academic relationships” (Resilience Academic Team RAT, 2022). I am therefore grateful that I was able to come here as part of a symposium with two other artists with whom we work at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, and to use this time to wander together (which is an important part of each of us artistic practice), to talk and to be attentive to the landscape.

My collaborative thinking also includes interspecies collaboration, understood as an orientation towards the encounter and coexistence of human and non-human beings in the spirit of deep ecology. The various forms of this encounter become the subject for a new series of works.These include a work entitled “equal”, which I started during my stay and which I intend to continue working on.

I returned to Joya again after 5 years, but I never really left completely. This place and its good energy are still with me. Coming back here, all the meetings and conversations, the strength and faith with which Donna and Simon Beckmann run their project, remind me again that ‘I believe in Earth, in compassion and in cooperation — also above species and that I believe (despite all) in humankind.’*

*An excerpt from the “The Secret Activism Manifesto”', full text available on my website:

Michalina W Klasik

Joya: AiR / Paweł Szeibel

‘This is my second encounter with the landscape of the Almería province, a place that captivates with its infinity.

For me, examining and immersing myself in this place is invaluable. The unique experience encompasses only me, my possibilities, and the landscape. I draw inspiration from cognitive experiences and the totality of raw nature. The landscape around the Joya residence: arte + ecología provides an opportunity to study this place, from the ammonites to the urban structures of the nearest towns.

Participation in it inspired me to work with an object I encountered by chance: a braided "pleita" band used for shaping local cheese. It is an artifact woven by local craftsmen from "esparto" grass, typical of this place. It comes from nature and returns to it. Consistent with my previous artistic practices, I explore the possibilities of materials derived from plants, particularly those used in the practice of creating basic items that have remained unchanged for decades. Processing this material and bestowing upon it new forms grants me the opportunity to work on my next project.

I am also extremely pleased to have had the opportunity to participate in the Field Research - Transdisciplinary Approaches to Decolonizing Nature symposium, where I could present my previous research project.

Paweł Szeibel

Joya: AiR / Joanna Zdzienicka - Obałek

Closer {work with collection chiaro + scuro}

From the very beginning, I understood "Closer" as a noun, a device equipped with not only technical, but also mental tools. I perceive the activity associated with the project by this name as time spent under a certain special filter, amplifying the atmosphere of focus, close observation, or perhaps even affection towards the very fabric of an object.

The moonlit landscape on our journey appeared suddenly, although I don't remember the exact moment of this visual leap. It probably happened shortly after we got into a taxi in Velez Rubio. It seemed to me that the car windows had turned into screens filled with a white-gray texture, interwoven with a network of protruding roots. The landscape was becoming increasingly simpler. Eyes tired from constant scanning, after a long journey, finally found relief.

Time spent in this completely new landscape for me – because that's how I perceive it (especially compared to the post-industrial region of Poland where I live and the very center of the city in which I reside) – made me rekindle my interest in the concept of light, but in a completely different context than before. One thread of this context is the sensory level, which I don't always let dominate in my artistic pursuits – it has to be very intense to have the final say. I now rely on a strong sense of the presence of such energy, thinking about the energy accumulated in every element that makes up my surrounding environment, about a kind of accumulated pure warmth that I felt at every step of all my walks and hikes around the Joya center from the first to the last step. An internal warmth... despite the absence of very high temperatures. Maybe, thanks to this internal sense of warmth, I felt that even though my artistic practices are based on collecting, this time I don't want, maybe I shouldn't even take anything with me...? I was afraid I would disturb some balance that had been defining itself in this place over the years. I felt that all I needed was to look as broadly as possible at the entire composition surrounding me, and then put the objects I studied back in their place. Another aspect, long present in my practice, is the constant need to peer inside objects, to illuminate them, not just metaphorically but literally - using scanners, tomographs, photographing them from every possible angle, examining them under a magnifying glass. The aforementioned Closer (as a tool) activated strongly during the residency, for which I am immensely grateful. I still feel the echo of that warmth. On its wave, a new series is being created, where the shape of a shadow will be responsible for the narrative... or perhaps, the edge of light?

Joanna Zdzienicka - Obałek

Three artists / adjuncts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland, in residence as part of the symposium ‘Transdiciplinary Approached to Decolonising Nature’.