Joya: AiR / Abbie Stellar / USA

“Just a few days into my residency at Joya: AiR, I suddenly felt the expansive yet short timeframe of two weeks. In the best possible way this situation of facing time, with so much room to observe, make, and rest was what I hoped would revive me and my excitement towards making work. Time felt like the wind, or like the traveling of sound. Sometimes it was a whisper echoing with the sound of the dry, crispy grass. Other times it was strong and gusty, reverberating through the valley with gusto. While at JOYA, I took time for myself and thought about my art practice, allowing the wind to take me where it would. I reconnected with my work with determination, joy, and ideas. I made new connections with an unfamiliar landscape and with people living (both permanently and temporarily) in that space. I found familiarity and embraces as I ventured into an unknown timeframe. This not knowing allowed me to explore and be curious about forms I’ve encountered both in nature and in domestic space considering their relativity to one’s own memories, while further investigating markings of time through my artistic practice. By the end of my residency I felt better acquainted with time in a way I hadn’t felt in awhile. A sense of knowing there is time, yet making the most of it when it's present; not feeling the need to constantly go unless that’s what feels right. Kind of a lot like the wind”.

Abbie Stellar

Abbie Stellar is an artist currently based in Austin, TX. Working primarily in sculpture, her work engages with ideas of the familiar, memory, material culture, and markings of time. Through malleable mediums and process-based work, she gives shape and form to impermanent aspects of the human experience. She received her BA in Art from the University of Southern California in 2018. She’s had solo and group shows in both Fort Worth, TX and Los Angeles, CA, and taught art in various capacities through arts organizations, museums, and the Montessori school system.

Simon Beckmann26 September 2023