Farm Artist: Growing Ideas and Forging Ahead
Artist in Residence Julia Einstein takes a moment to reflect on Year 2 of this program and shares the plans for Year 3. The program aligns with Raleigh City Farm’s strategic goal of providing enhanced education and engagement to their community.
Big successes in Year 2
Art on the Farm workshops sold out and 120 people discovered the farm. My flowered farm textiles (thanks to the support of Spoonflower) embellished both the Harvest Dinner and Bearthday events. There was tremendous joy, when at last, I was able to capture on canvas the elusive Poppy. Gently, the blooms were picked and carried from farm to studio where I was able to elicit a flower portrait. Best of all, there was a surprise when I took my floral subjects to a new medium —printmaking. I started carving and falling in love with wood, and pulling prints and falling in love with paper. It was a happy moment when a set of these prints were auctioned for the farm’s annual fundraiser.
Community collaboration grew– in the neighborhood and across town. Raleigh City Farm + Pocket Gallery + Oakwood Garden Club resulted in an exhibition inside the gallery where my flower paintings were on view, and outside the gallery where an installation, a “community art quilt” was crafted from paper, flower art and handwritten expressions. Raleigh City Farm + Artspace became a two part Cross Pollination / Cross City experience of seeing an urban farm through the eyes of an artist and enjoying the hub of creativity in a downtown art studio.
I dug deep into my roots as a museum educator within the wonderful world of interpretation to help visitors to learn and make art across generations. Voila! The Interactive Plant Marker Project was born! I created hand carved wood markers depicting Mallow Hibiscus, Sweet Charlie Strawberry, Artichoke Thistle, and Brown Turkey Fig. Visitors are now invited to follow a map to locate and identify the plants, and make rubbings from each carving to produce a folio of prints. It has been lots of fun, and also has provided the graphic design for a tote bag that’s perfect for a farm fashionista!
Big expectations for Year 3
All the established favorites will continue to flourish, from workshops to community collaborations. The interactive plant marker project will expand to a family friendly kit of activities for families with young children to engage with the farm. A fresh idea is a new illustration project where I will make monthly drawings to create a visual timeline of what’s growing. It will bring me close to my subject as I render the details of even the tiniest, close-to-the-ground specimens. At the end of the season, these drawings will be composed and color added to become an illustrated Raleigh City Farm calendar.
Drawing will be a focus in my 2024 studio practice as this medium is a most basic, most direct line from eye to brain to hand to paper. It will prepare me for a new series of oversized paintings and window drawings for Field Studies, an end of summer exhibition at Pullen Arts Center. The exhibition will grow out of a studio collaboration from myself, Amy Axon, and Dawn Marie Rozzo as we create out of the love of our artist’s gardens (for me this is Raleigh City Farm).
When you visit Raleigh City Farm you’ll have the chance to meet (and thank) the wonderful crew for whom I am grateful. As I reflect on 2023, I send big thanks out to Spoonflower, Pocket Gallery, Artspace, and Oakwood Garden Club. Growing Ideas and forging ahead is what it’s all about! Raleigh City Farm provides inspiration, its growing season aligns with my creative process. I’d love for you to be inspired to take one of my workshops! Please follow #artistrcf for an insider's view of this program.