Jess's Artist Residency in Iceland!

Hello everyone! My name is Jessica Tawczynski.
Please help me go to Iceland! 

The Gilfelag Artist Residence in Akureyri, Iceland

The first 50 people to donate over $20 will get a free, signed original print!
Check my update posts, facebook, or website for photos of my go fund me original prints.

I have never not been a broke artist.
I am a painter/printmaker based out of the Boston, MA area.

This is a link to my website so you can view images of what I make:
http://jessica-tawczynski.squarespace.com

After graduating with my Master's degree in Fine Art from MassArt this past spring, I hit the ground running- sending out application after application for jobs in and out of my area, artist residencies, exhibitions and anything I could find. I started working as a waitress at a pub in Roslindale, MA, anything to pay my bills. On my days off, after I get out of work, or before I go in, I spend every chance I can making things in my tiny 8ft x 8ft square studio space I have built for myself out of my apartment bedroom.

This is the first opportunity I have had to become an artist in residence. It is an international opportunity and a great opportunity for me to engage with my work and experiment in another place. I want to throw myself into new and exciting challenges head on!

The residency period I have been chosen for will run for the entire month of November.
10/31/2017-11/30/2017 (to be exact)

Iceland has always been a place I have wanted to go and research. My work is based in regard to landscape and develops based on my experiences in different places. 

The following is a statement about my current bodies of work:

"Our understanding of the universe is a transformative condition. Like organisms, in their own right, my work reflects on and inhabits the residual information of an ever developing landscape, only reproducing itself, and challenging preconceived believability. Events form and deconstruct themselves within and on top of the picture plane, in parallel to experimental scientific and philosophical data, and experiential knowledge.

For the past few years I have been producing things that question my involvement in how art meets science.
I love researching the latest theories in how we understand our world and asking question about them.
With these theories and sometimes with a philosophical hand, I try to create visual languages to reinterpret this information and question how art can influence or challenge science and society and vice versa."

Plan:

My work is process driven and the proposed activities in store for my residence in Akureyri, would further investigate these large ideas in direct inference to the Icelandic landscape, as well as continuing to consider my duty as a thinker and maker in 2017 contemporary society, as an artist working internationally, and as a citizen of the United States.

About The Gilfelag Artist Residence in Akureyri, Iceland:

The fee for 1 month stay is 650 euro.
or approx. $772.92 

Since I will be flying from Boston, I will also need funds for my transportation. The approximate cost for a round trip to Akureyri, Iceland is between:
(WOW air)
$477.88 - $500.00

Since I will be there for an entire month, I will also need a stipend for food/misc. I am really good at eating as little as possible on the 'broke' diet but think that I will not have the privelage of knowing all of the local secrets so I have estimated my food and miscellaneous hygiene cost to be approximately:
$350.00 (or approx $87/week)

Since I will be flying, I will not be able to bring much of my art supplies with me. I work mostly with oil based paints and inks and many of these items are flammable. This leaves me with having to buy much of my supplies when I get to Iceland. If my goal is reached, I have decided that all of my leftover supplies at the end of my residency will be donated to the program for other artists to use. Estimate of this cost:
Paints: $80
Paint Thinner: $20
Ink: $20
Wax Medium: $10
Plate Oil: $10
Canvases/Wood panels: $100
Art Supplies Total: $150.00



Total Goal: $1,772.92



I feel that going to an artist residency at this point in my career would benefit me because I will be able to solely focus on my work without the distractions I have at home.

I would like to be a part of a community of individuals who share my passions and inform my research!

Please help me in accessing my dream and donate to help me go to Iceland.

Thank you!
Jessica Tawczynski