Oaxaca Art Residency, Mexico

June 2026

I spent four weeks at Arquetopia in San Pablo Etla, Oaxaca, using the time to think more about my art, what I choose to sketch and what I am actually trying to say through it.

The residency was mostly self-guided. We were given academic papers and critical thinking material around art, culture, ethics and representation, then left to explore our own practice.

I am much more of a practical learner, so I ended up spending a lot of my time at Subterráneos, an independent printmaking workshop in Oaxaca.

I had already been interested in printmaking, but this gave me the chance to actually spend time doing it. Of course my first print was a bird, a hummingbird this time. Then, after spending time thinking about my art practice at this residency, I improved my next print to have more meaning based on an experience I had volunteering catching, banding and releasing birds with a local conservation organisation on Monte Alban - the site of the oldest civilisation in Mesoamerica.

What I liked about printmaking was how much it made me simplify. You have to decide what lines matter, what can be left out and where the contrast needs to be. My time at Subterráneos also inspired me to look into meaning and process as I choose what to express in my artworks

This all started feeding back into my sketching too.

I have been travelling with a sketchbook for months and I usually choose things because they interest me or because I think they will be fun to draw. During the residency I started thinking more about why I choose one subject over another and what that choice says about a place.

A sketch is never really a full record of what is in front of you. You are always editing. You decide what to include, what to leave out, what to exaggerate and where you want people to look. My time at Subterráneos also inspired me to look into meaning and process as I choose what to express in my artworks

That became one of the main things I explored during the residency.

I also started thinking more about how art can carry ideas, not just record places. Mexico is full of murals, posters, prints and public art that communicate politics, culture, resistance, identity and environmental issues.

That got me thinking about how my own conservation work and art might start coming together more.

I do not have a neat answer yet, but I am interested in combining sketching, printmaking, environmental stories and community engagement.

“It made me think more carefully about what I make, why I make it, and what I want it to communicate.”