Artist testimonies and interviews - 2018

USA  - December  2018

The Sachaqa Art Residency was a challenging, transforming, and very rewarding experience for me and my family. I attended the residency with my family (wife and two daughters 7 and 12). My wife and daughters had never traveled outside the USA, so it was a big step to take. Everything was amazing and new, from the motor-taxis, bugs, night sounds, and really the entirety of the experience.

 

During the Sachaqa experience, these challenges became the building blocks of the transformation in us and the rewarding outcome. The lack of fresh vegetables in the village ( you can buy fresh vegetables in the city of Tarapoto) pushed us to explore more of the traditional food in the village and eat more fresh fruits from the village. My older daughter worked with the local restaurant owner one afternoon to learn how to make the traditional dish “juane.” The hike up the hill became the daily routine and exercise. With our limited Spanish, we were still able to meet and work with the locals, planting trees, making art, shopping, and my girls learned to play tag and draw with the local kids with their limited Spanish and body language. We dressed in long pants and shirts for the mosquitoes and our fears of spiders waned as we learned more about their docile character, and became more comfortable seeing all sorts of interesting beautifully colored. My girls became intrigued by the amazing bugs we saw: stick bugs, leaf looking bugs, caterpillars, butterflies, etc. The last week of our trip we were walking through Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve on an Amazon boat Trip, and my girls were marveling over a large spider on an elaborate webs, they were enduring thick mosquitos, picking up land crabs and snail shells. The girls were rambling through the jungle like they were born to it.  Their new found strength, a transformation of their fears, was difficult at first, but will surely be something they remember and keep with them.

 

For me, the inability to get the carving tools and materials that I am used to using, prevented me from working in my more realistic style. It led my work into more stylized and symbolic forms. It also pushed me to work with a local carpenter, to utilize his skills and tools. My Spanish was limited but working with Carlos, it pushed me to improve my Spanish and utilize drawings for communication.

 

I was exposed to the landscape, myths, materials and knowledge. My sculpture became a sort of totem developed through the authentic connection to place. It was informed by experiences in San Roque, Chachapoyas, Chazuta, and the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve.  My work has a relationship with indigenous forms not through conscious mimicry, but through sharing sources of creative language based on place.  The strength of my experiences that Sachaqa has made available is the aesthetic transition into a new body of work that I will continue to explore for years to come.   

Website Nolan Salix -  http://nolansalixart.com/

 

Some unexpected joys of our Sachaqua experience included: the tasty indigenous food and plentiful fresh fruits; the availability of hiking opportunities right from the centre; the host kids Jacob and Leia were great companions for our kids and taught them a lot of Spanish; swimming in the Cumbaza River; bird watching; the friendliness of the locals and their patience with our poor Spanish; working with Daniel and the town of San Roque planting trees in the village or building plastic bottle bins; and the many amazing trips we did with Daniel (Chazuta, Kuelap, Amazon).

 

I highly recommend Sachaqa Centre de Art as well as Sacharuna Adventure for exploring beyond San Roque.

https://sacharunadventure.com/