"I arrived at Velez Rubio at night, was collected by Simon and driven through the darkness and indiscernible landscape to Joya: AiR. I was longing for sleep after a fourteen hour journey and was greeted with wonderful food, wine and warmth. I have a vague memory of tumbling into bed.

The morning light was truly astonishing, waking to a view from the bedroom window across the tops of olive trees with a rising mountain set against a clear blue sky in the still , silent air.

I hold firmly to the maxim that everything is defined by it’s context and, given that my allocated studio looked out into a bone-dry mountainous landscape I was wondering to what extent this alien terrain might impact on the work I may produce.

My work is often described as ‘urban’, not least because I have explored ‘bill-board evidence ‘ to generate collages that partake of the social history of a place. A kind of ‘social archeology ‘ where I unpeel the layers of patterns, events and activities and re-frame what I find. It is something I did in other residencies In Thessaloniki, in Venice and in Crete so naturally I collected peeling, torn posters in Granada to enable me to make a start. It is an interesting way to engage with a place and affords focus and time to adjust to the surrounding environment.

Staying at Joya: allowed me to set my own routine, to dip in and out of work when I wanted to and also to remain focused and locked in to whatever I was doing for as long as I wished. I felt completely relaxed throughout my stay and found that even though I worked at a leisurely pace I was able to produce an interesting and varied range of work, whilst appraising and re-appraising the processes I was using.

Each day was rounded with excellent food, wine and conversation and I enjoyed this immensely. Meeting other artists, listening to presentations and also rising to the challenge of presenting and discussing my own practice was stimulating and challenging.

In simple terms, Joya is a tremendous project and I would love to return in the near future".

Bob Lawson

http://www.boblawsonartist.co.uk/

"We dream of time to concentrate on our work: reading, thinking, experimenting and playing with ideas without pressure or the weight of daily existence and chores as a distraction. Time at Joya: AiR affords the realisation of that dream... a light-filled studio. A beautiful, calm house with inspiring things all around, textured surfaces, art, books, wonderful energy and the air filled with the delicious smells of Donna Beckmann's cooking. At night it is silent (apart from the singing crickets) and the stars in the black sky are brilliant. As I walked for hours every day I observed the impact of agriculture on the arid landscape and the patterns created by humans and animals. I noted the specialised flora: pine and juniper trees, wild rosemary, thyme, santolina, and euphorbia. My work was inspired by the stunning landscape around me and go home to my studio with a new body of work and ideas to develop. Thank you Simon and Donna"!

Leah Teschendorff

“It starts with gratitude.

One of the curses of living in such a fast-paced society is that we tend to take things for granted. We overlook everyday blessings, oblivious to the gifts around us. And we tend to rush through each day, less and less grateful, or mindful; which is no way to live.

I love my life in Sydney, Australia. It’s a full and interesting life but it has sometimes been overwhelming, dealing with all the issues of running my art business, my domestic home management, and my family; as well as having time to focus on my creativity. Coming here for a two week art residency has been amazing.

I cannot underestimate the quiet beauty of time to think, unencumbered by the minutiae of my normal daily life. The spare parched landscape has been a true inspiration to me – walking along the white roads of Los Gázquez and watching the landscape change with the light. Back in Australia I am a coastal painter, so responding to the driest place in Spain has been a wonderful contrast.

Every morning I look out of the window at the valley below and feel truly grateful that I have had this opportunity to explore new places in my sketchbooks, paint en plein air and develop works on canvas in the beautiful studio here. That view through the studio window will remain with me always…

The evening presentations from the other creative residents and the conversations on wide ranging subject matter have been stimulating and encouraging. At the end of each day, the dinners and chat around the large table with Simon, Donna, and the whole entourage have been marvellous and I have looked forward to them daily.

So it ends with a huge sense of gratitude.
I leave here with wonderful memories and a lot of new work in my suitcase”.

Debbie Mackinnon

debbiemackinnon.com

“My works synthesise painting, printing, video and digital collage and as such they may be envisaged as a mirror reflecting of conceptual, theoretical, and applied arts. My current research is about occult, mystical and spiritual practices and philosophies and the manifestation of these ideas in contemporary visual and performative art, as well as their relation to the technological era and digital aesthetic.

Joya: AiR was the perfect setting to go deeper into my research, with the energy of the beautiful surroundings, the inspirational presence of the Beckmanns , and being far from all that is familiar”.

Michal Raz

www.michal-raz.com

“I spent my time at Joya: AiR mainly reflecting and wondering about my art practice. I came here with the intention of focusing on my research without the pressure of coming up with a finished product but by reading, organizing ideas, and thinking about the most relevant topics in my work. In this sense, the environment that Joya offers is absolutely unique and adept to my needs: the silence present in the desert landscape somehow is reflected in my own mind and allowed me to find the perfect environment to work without useless distractions.

Donna and Simon and their family are warm and very welcoming so that I’m already planning the next visit! “

Elisa Carutti

www.elisacarutti.com

“I came to Joya: arte + ecología / AiR while exploring ideas about home. I found that in topography completely foreign to me, and under a night sky that was otherworldly, I felt a genuine sense of belonging and home. Although I came alone, and removed myself from what was familiar and comfortable, the rich environment that Joya had to offer brought new connections to the land, the air, myself and the wonderful people I was surrounded by. It was truly amazing to pause, listen and observe not only the ephemeral beauty of our Earth, but as humans our innate ability to capture, create and respond to our surroundings when we give ourselves the time”.

“Thank you Simon, Donna, Sesi and Soli for this experience and all the wonderful memories”.

Alice McDonald  http://www.alice-mcdonald.com

“On my first day at Joya: AiR I wrote in my notebook ‘You have all the time in the world Zoe’. I often experienced time differently at Joya – it felt eternal. And as I draft this at the airport leaving Spain, desperately trying to capture the last essence of my residency experience, I realise soon it will exist only as memories, documents and images. However, I believe this collection of thoughts and ideas will have longevity.

I came to Joya with the intention of utilising the abundance of sunlight to produce photopolymer plates. Though such experiments were undertaken, as was inevitable other investigations and production took place.

I have an on-going project whereby I collect news headlines and re-create these using various media/technology. I have a particular collection that I return to often. They have previously existed in various incarnations – as letterpress prints and digital projections. I found myself drawn to these yet again during the residency and created these as photopolymer plates (to be printed on my return to the UK).

I collected ‘new’ current news headlines during my time at Joya. They have now become a part of this on-going project and have been subsumed into my collection. It will be interesting to see what they signify in a week, month, and year.

The physical newspaper also became a material for me during the residency as I began to experiment with cutting up and collaging news images and using the studio window as a way to experiment with the transparent nature of the paper.

In addition, I also created Cyan prints of various plants and objects that existed in the landscape and environment around Joya.  I was interested in the layers of history that inhabit the space and the stories these objects reveal.

The positive experience will certainly influence the ‘personal’ headlines I intend to create as a document of my residency period”.

Zoe Tissandier

http://www.zoetissandier.co.uk

‘The days at Joya unfold organically and I am gently guided by

the sun and the wind; I follow a quiet curiosity prompted by the sierras and

the barrancos. As I lean in and surrender myself to this rhythm,

I catch a glimpse of a mere moment in geologic time — acknowledging and

accepting that the space I occupy is governed by the vast natural cycles of

the alpine desert, but also by the complications of land use, ownership,

abandonment and agricultural practice.

I came to Los Gázquez (home of Joya:) keen to explore embodiment through landscape

as something continually produced through peripatetic and optical experiences,

but also through historical, social, material, linguistic, cultural and geopolitical

conditions. In the time that I have spent walking the land and sharing dynamic

conversation with my warm hosts and fellow residents, I felt compelled to write

a series of poems. I hope that this collection, which naturally clustered into

corresponding times of the day, will act as seeds to be sown at a later date —

an alternative form of research. The process of creative writing has become for

me a curatorial methodology that I cherish equally if not more than the more

traditional forms of investigation which may subsequently accompany it’.

Katie Lawson

Katie Lawson is currently completing her Master of Visual Studies in Curation at the University of Toronto, having previously completed an MA in Contemporary Art and BFA in Studio Art.