Charley Young MFA '14
As an artist who focuses on ideas of place and site, it has been extremely important to me to be able to travel directly to these various locations to do research and develop stronger connections.
In 2014, Charley Young will sail on a traditionally rigged Barquentine ship as a resident of The Arctic Circle expeditionary residency program, which brings together international artists of all disciplines, as well as scientists, architects, and educators, to work independently and collaboratively in the Northern landscape. Charley is an installation-based printer and interdisciplinary artist whose work includes large-scale monoprints of historic building facades, through which she documents a site’s appearance prior to its destruction.
This fall, Charley was an Artist-in-Residence at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, where she developed a series of site-oriented artworks that interacted with embedded ruins of architecture in the region. She has also been an Artist-in-Residence at The Vermont Studio Center, Spark Box Studios in Ontario, and the Klondike Institute for Arts and Culture in Dawson City, Yukon.
“I see the world through the language of printmaking,” she says.
Much like the surface of a collagraph plate, the urban and rural landscape are full of textures and surfaces. Navigating through a space, be it a city or my studio, allows my eyes to observe and my imagination to wander. I record my encounters as an architect, archaeologist, writer, or printmaker might do, archiving with my camera and sketchbook or through field notes. I see my art as a bridge between citizens, environments and communities.”
“What I appreciate most about MECA&D’s MFA Program is the flexibility it offers. I've been able to travel and do artist residencies, which has substantially influenced my work. As an artist who focuses on ideas of place and site, it has been extremely important to me to be able to travel directly to these various locations to do research and develop stronger connections. I really appreciate the quality of the MFA faculty and the diverse range of visiting artists and lecturers that the program brings in during the Summer Intensive. It's been very influential to have them visit me in my studio, and the feedback and criticism of these artists, curators, and critics has allowed my work to grow conceptually, materially and formally.” By Annie Wadleigh