Yura Adams is a painter and installation artist who is known for energetic and abstract work that communicates messages of cultural and poetic experience. For the past two years her projects have been based on global warming. Her interdisciplinary career is based in the San Francisco Bay area, Lower East Side of New York City, the Hudson Valley and currently Western Massachusetts. Adams has exhibited as a visual and performance artist in venues such as The New Museum in New York, Experimental Intermedia, Franklin Furnace, New Music America, Real Art Ways, Hartford, Connecticut, and one person shows at the John Davis Gallery in Hudson, New York. She recently received an individual artist, Pollock-Krasner grant and this October, will curate and exhibit in Unraveling, a four-person show at Opalka Gallery at Sage College, Albany. Adams has also received grants from National Endowment for the Arts, Berkshire Taconic Foundation, New York Decentralization, and was a regional representative in the New York Foundation of the Arts, Mark program. She has taught painting in many schools including Rhode Island School of Design, and is curator/director of contemporary art for the Foundation Gallery at Columbia-Greene Community College in Hudson, New York. She lives and works in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Published on March 5th 2021. Artist responses collected in months previous.
What hurdles have you overcome this year and how have they affected your art practice?
Isolation due to Covid has been the biggest hurdle to tackle this past year. Because I live in the country, I make a point of reaching out for connection as a regular life practice, then suddenly, the pandemic eliminated human contact. There were days I felt my anchor had drifted away. A life on the couch loomed, so I had to invent coping strategies. I learned to zoom and used facetime for the first time. That technology opened up videos and virtual studio visits. Electronic connection saved me. I connected to friends and took advantage of free zooms for artists. Another coping strategy was to walk, and through that activity I discovered that exercising in my studio energized me. Over time, the strategies I developed for that rootless feeling made me more productive in the studio. I figured out ways to overcome psychological stress and turn it into great studio energy.
How has your art practice been affected by the pandemic?
My practice intensified due to the pandemic. I was furloughed from my job, so I was able to spend days and months in the studio without interruption. The time felt like a gift and I wanted to use it wisely. The lack of galleries to visit, openings to attend and social interaction was a reprieve from the world at large. I felt this very strongly and wanted to take advantage of the time. I had the sensation of time changing, stretching, then standing still. In that silence, I connected strongly to the farm where I live. I walked the land, closely watched the birds and wildlife that is in abundance here, made notes, researched the geology of this place and made work about it. The work shifted with the changing summer light, I made discoveries with the technology I use and pursued these discoveries in my art. Because of this focus, I was able to accomplish goals and create a lot of work.
What support systems have you put in place to help keep your practice thriving amidst these unforeseeable circumstances?
I rely on the support of a group of friends and the pandemic has made our connection stronger. Electronic connection has been paramount in maintaining sanity! Regularly scheduled zooms with family and friends kept my heart in a good place, but also phone calls and emails became currency for hello-I-care, and hello-I-care was/is critical to well-being. I can’t be an effective artist without it. I worked on my social media platforms; took some online classes to becoming better at using them that cost me nothing but my time. There was a lot of supportive and educational stuff out there, available and I used it as much as I could stand being in front of a computer. The pandemic made it necessary to figure out virtual studio visits. I discovered to my surprise that live-zoom and studio visit-videos are effective. My first videotaped visit to my studio required 25 attempts, most of the do-overs were learning how to make it more effective through nothing but repetition! Video makes it clear what is important to say about my work. These are great tools to use in the future.
What methods do you employ to stay resilient in your art practice? What tips would you recommend to other artists who find staying resilient difficult?
I have a new technique that has proved effective in the studio. In the past, the time I took to make decisions in the studio slowed my process down. I would hem and haw, make drawings that circled around changes, and also, work out visual ideas on the computer that I never ended up using. Now I use the “just do it” approach! I have found it is better to not hesitate. I get up and go after the first idea I have (usually the best idea anyway). If I have to cut up something valuable, I do it and never regret the action. I may regret the results, but I am the engine that can make something else. Another method to increase resiliency is a nap, especially after lunch. It feels indulgently silly, but a nap clears my head. Twenty minutes tops. A follow-up of good music, Iced expresso and rice crackers and I can go all afternoon.
What have you learned about yourself as an artist this year?
I have learned to take chances in getting my work out. I received a Pollock-Krasner grant one year ago, and the funding has allowed a year of intense focus. I developed work I wanted to show, but had no venue, so I curated a show, with myself and three other women whose work and career complement each other, titled Unraveling. At the beginning of the pandemic, I pitched Unraveling to some venues. The pitches were cold, no one knew me. I was thrilled when it was accepted and got scheduled. The show opened at Opalka Gallery, Fall 2020. I learned to push myself to ask. I also learned this year to develop consistency in my work, repeating a palette and form. This was a big lesson that has taken a long time for me to absorb, but this year I finally pulled it off. It has been a crazy year on the outside, disruptive and upsetting, but a very good year for my work.
What hurdles have you overcome this year and how have they affected your art practice?
Isolation due to Covid has been the biggest hurdle to tackle this past year. Because I live in the country, I make a point of reaching out for connection as a regular life practice, then suddenly, the pandemic eliminated human contact. There were days I felt my anchor had drifted away. A life on the couch loomed, so I had to invent coping strategies. I learned to zoom and used facetime for the first time. That technology opened up videos and virtual studio visits. Electronic connection saved me. I connected to friends and took advantage of free zooms for artists. Another coping strategy was to walk, and through that activity I discovered that exercising in my studio energized me. Over time, the strategies I developed for that rootless feeling made me more productive in the studio. I figured out ways to overcome psychological stress and turn it into great studio energy.
How has your art practice been affected by the pandemic?
My practice intensified due to the pandemic. I was furloughed from my job, so I was able to spend days and months in the studio without interruption. The time felt like a gift and I wanted to use it wisely. The lack of galleries to visit, openings to attend and social interaction was a reprieve from the world at large. I felt this very strongly and wanted to take advantage of the time. I had the sensation of time changing, stretching, then standing still. In that silence, I connected strongly to the farm where I live. I walked the land, closely watched the birds and wildlife that is in abundance here, made notes, researched the geology of this place and made work about it. The work shifted with the changing summer light, I made discoveries with the technology I use and pursued these discoveries in my art. Because of this focus, I was able to accomplish goals and create a lot of work.
What support systems have you put in place to help keep your practice thriving amidst these unforeseeable circumstances?
I rely on the support of a group of friends and the pandemic has made our connection stronger. Electronic connection has been paramount in maintaining sanity! Regularly scheduled zooms with family and friends kept my heart in a good place, but also phone calls and emails became currency for hello-I-care, and hello-I-care was/is critical to well-being. I can’t be an effective artist without it. I worked on my social media platforms; took some online classes to becoming better at using them that cost me nothing but my time. There was a lot of supportive and educational stuff out there, available and I used it as much as I could stand being in front of a computer. The pandemic made it necessary to figure out virtual studio visits. I discovered to my surprise that live-zoom and studio visit-videos are effective. My first videotaped visit to my studio required 25 attempts, most of the do-overs were learning how to make it more effective through nothing but repetition! Video makes it clear what is important to say about my work. These are great tools to use in the future.
What methods do you employ to stay resilient in your art practice? What tips would you recommend to other artists who find staying resilient difficult?
I have a new technique that has proved effective in the studio. In the past, the time I took to make decisions in the studio slowed my process down. I would hem and haw, make drawings that circled around changes, and also, work out visual ideas on the computer that I never ended up using. Now I use the “just do it” approach! I have found it is better to not hesitate. I get up and go after the first idea I have (usually the best idea anyway). If I have to cut up something valuable, I do it and never regret the action. I may regret the results, but I am the engine that can make something else. Another method to increase resiliency is a nap, especially after lunch. It feels indulgently silly, but a nap clears my head. Twenty minutes tops. A follow-up of good music, Iced expresso and rice crackers and I can go all afternoon.
What have you learned about yourself as an artist this year?
I have learned to take chances in getting my work out. I received a Pollock-Krasner grant one year ago, and the funding has allowed a year of intense focus. I developed work I wanted to show, but had no venue, so I curated a show, with myself and three other women whose work and career complement each other, titled Unraveling. At the beginning of the pandemic, I pitched Unraveling to some venues. The pitches were cold, no one knew me. I was thrilled when it was accepted and got scheduled. The show opened at Opalka Gallery, Fall 2020. I learned to push myself to ask. I also learned this year to develop consistency in my work, repeating a palette and form. This was a big lesson that has taken a long time for me to absorb, but this year I finally pulled it off. It has been a crazy year on the outside, disruptive and upsetting, but a very good year for my work.
Find Yura Adams on Instagram