Natasha Caruana

01.09.11 - Travels

 

Great time in California! It was fantastic to meet up with a couple of original Natasha Caruana supporters there. In 2005 after my BA degree show fed up with the rejection letters in the UK… I worked till my fingers were blue at a Lidl checkout to save money, with enough pennies in the bank, I booked a flight and took my portfolio off to the Hollywood Hills to try and get an exhibition (so cocky!). My journey took me a bit further south and I ended up meeting gallery director Chris Hoff who at the time ran ‘The Office’. A wonderful, wonderful man who gave me my first break.

 

It has been a good five years since I’ve seen him and his wife Michelle, but it was like nothing had changed and again Chris and I were quickly plotting future shows and setting up an artist residency funded by his Hoff Foundation.

A quick 24-hour turnaround back in London to wash, pack and back to the airport. This time I was heading to Fez for a week workshop with Eric Kessels and the 1000 Words team.

I must admit I was pretty disorganised booking my hotel in the departure lounge, and secretly worrying if I’d remembered to pack my camera! But W-O-W everything turned out in the end and it was a week to remember.

 

Myself and the handful of other artists stayed in a beautiful raid in the old Medina of Fez... for the first few days I was pretty jetlagged and culture shocked – not to mention the stress of being thrown into a five day creative brief in which we were meant to get out of our comfort zones! But by the end of day two I managed to create a little studio for myself on the top floor of the raid and get my head around the collection of old photographs I’d been given to work from.

 

And then I was off in the 35 degrees heat… hitting the streets armed only with my faithful iphone and collection of disposable cameras.

More details to follow soon!