During the Summer of 2018 I was fortunate to be accepted into The Star Art Studio Residency in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. While I was there I was fascinated by the depth of both the culture and the landscape. My breath was taken by how vast the mountains, lakes, and plains of the rugged terrain that surrounds Kyrgyzstan. I took interest in capturing my explorations with gouache and loved how the sky opened along the horizon and the sun burst onto the land.
While the landscape was lovely the history of Kyrgyzstan was just as interesting. Connected by the Epic of Manas an oral story telling the life and history of Manas and his descendants. Many Kyrgyz still identify with the story and are you can see it deeply rooted in the culture. Spending time listening to the story being sung was an experience I’d recommend to anyone.
Despite the beauty of Kyrgyzstan it is still developing and having to deal with the pressure of maintaining it’s peoples cultural identity while also moving into the modern age. One issue that took precedence for me was the amount of bride kidnapping that continues despite the government declaring it illegal. For locals it has been a tradition that has gone on for centuries, for modern historians it’s an after affect of Soviet fallout.
The work I created in Kyrgyzstan was a body of work trying to understand the collision of cultural identity, history, mythology, traditions, and the perspectives that develop when their are so many contradictions.

One of the highlights of the trip was my experience in Tash-Rabat. I had met an unlikely friend in a Yurt camp one night who introduced me to the locals at a camp not far from the historical site in Tash-Rabat. Here I worked with locals to create a mural that would capture some of the cultural identity of the Kyrgyz people. Local artists and I worked on the design and then a group of volunteers came together to put it together. It was only one day, but it was magnificent working with such passionate people.