This event recap is provided by Arts Assistant Moriah Arnold & Events Assistant Liz Crandall.
Community members recently gathered in the classroom at Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts & Agriculture for the third Open Studio of the season, where they heard from the current residents. The third cohort included multidisciplinary artist Kaitlin Santoro, writer Liza Birnbaum, and painter Krista Schoening.
Exploring Memory through Photographs & Water-Soluble Mediums with Kaitlin Santoro
The late spring evening began with multidisciplinary artist Kaitlin Santoro, who presented her communal display in the Classroom Studio.
For Kaitlin, there is beauty in the impermanence of her work with more transient materials. This is a way to comfort her during the feelings that arise with her family history of dementia. Her idea is for the work to be different for each individual who sees it. Using various types of materials and fixatives, Kaitlin showcased her emotional work through cyanotype-printed photographs, sugar and water-soluble paper with ink. Her pieces are meant to be interactive and require audience participation. Kaitlin’s art explores memory with tools like thermochromatic ink, which takes time, care and intention to reveal the image.
During her residency, Kaitlin experimented with sugar casting by creating mugs from molds. Each mug has a distinct hue depending on how long the sugar cooks on the stove. The darker the mug, the longer it cooked. Her playful ideas of family heirlooms and chinaware help capture memories, including real photographs of her family with their faces blurred out.
Amid Katilin’s presentation, she explained a past sugar cast work where she curated a lifesized doorway to present in the outdoors as a way of exploring the “Doorway Effect.” Kaitlin clarified this psychological phenomenon, explaining that it often happens when an individual passes through a doorway or threshold, only to immediately forget why they were moving from one location to another. This can be described as short-term memory loss, which directly ties to Kaitlin’s artwork.
Cycling Through a Second Residency and Grooving through Writing with Liza Birnbaum
Throughout her time on The Ranch, PMRCAA Resident Liza Birnbaum has analyzed the idea of altruism in the theme of her writing. Having been an artist in residence a few years prior, Liza felt excited to dive back into her project and settle back into the groove of writing.
Liza traveled from Seattle to Sisters to further her work on a novel focused on two friends who set out on a bicycle trip from the Bay Area to New Mexico. Ten days into the trip, Jo, the main character, grapples with her friend who decides to turn back. Jo is not ready to go home and deal with life, so she decides to continue on her journey. Her novel explores the idea of altruism: when to give something away and when to keep it. Jo is confronted with newly inherited money and what she wants to do with the enormous sum.
During her presentation, Liza read an excerpt from her novel that takes place shortly after Jo’s friend decides to turn back. She continues on the journey to New Mexico and encounters different people, towns, and characters but also has a lot of time to think while she’s traveling from place to place. Following the reading, Liza asked the audience: “who remains with you when you’re alone”? Though Jo was alone on her journey, the excerpt revealed that her friend, though not physically present, was still a large influence on her thinking patterns and how she was experiencing her journey ahead. Liza wanted to know who influences the audience’s thinking, who or what shows up when it is just you, alone with your thoughts.
Liza’s book was inspired by a cycling trip she took a decade ago, and part of that trip is the same route that her characters take. She thanked her past self for keeping such a detailed journal during her cycling trip. PMRCAA has been delighted to host Liza once more as a Resident.
Watching Plants Grow & Capturing the Process with Visual Artist Krista Schoening
Moving from the Classroom Studio, attendees followed painter Krista Schoening over to the Old Shop, her studio space while in residency.
Krista found her interest in botanical painting through still lifes, a traditional painting set-up where one paints a collection of objects posted in front of them. Though more of an aspiring studio painter, Krista enjoys creating from the life forms in front of her, especially botanicals. The final product is less important than the actual process of painting and working within the world around her, she says.
During her residency, Krista had been challenging her desire to be a studio painter and work in a controlled environment. She sat and painted in the garden at The Ranch and visited a prescribed burn site to paint the same clump of grass using egg tempera. Krista had developed a routine while in residence where she started her days painting up at the PMRCAA office dye garden, followed by traveling over to the burn site in the afternoon, and closed out her day at the residency garden, where she painted a rendition of rhubarb that grows in the backyard.
Two of the works Krista started while in residency show her plant subject in a monochromatic scale. Her monochromatic works were made using watercolor, a medium she is not as familiar with, but is eager to continue learning about. During her time here at PMRCAA, she made her own watercolor pigments using burnt materials, as well as continued her work with egg tempera paints.
After the Visits
All three residents enjoyed having the opportunity to connect with community members and were grateful to the attendees for taking time to attend the Open Studio and participate in conversations.
Thank you to our residents and community members for making the third Open Studio event a success. Our next Open Studio is scheduled for Wednesday, July 2, 2025 from 4–6 p.m. During this event, guests will hear from transdisciplinary artist Camila de Andrade Bianchi, culinary artist Min Liao and interdisciplinary artist Sean Whalen.
Photos by PMRCAA
