Summer 2025 News
Sitting on the work table inside the Lab Library is Jim Stevenson’s snappy, baby blue manual typewriter. Each artist-in-residence is invited to type answers to the same three questions:
What is most important to you in maintaining and nourishing your creative life?
What has been a seminal experience on your creative journey?
What piece of advice can you offer for sustaining a creative life as an artist?
At a time when scrolling has multiple meanings, the Lab Library’s scroll is indeed an invaluable and inspiring archive of thoughts, documenting a journey of creative pursuits. With every AIR’s shared experience, these typings grow deeper, like roots on a tree.
Thank you Lost and Found residency alums, for contributing your wisdom on life as we know it.
Josie Merck and Tyler Gillespie at the Yale School of Architecture
In March, the Lab hosted Florida-based poet, writer, professor/author, Tyler Gillespie. A treat to have another native Floridian at Lost and Found Lab. Tyler made the most out of the Lab’s proximity to New York City, pairing his focused, solitary writing time with trips into Manhattan and Brooklyn to take in theater, performance art, readings, and museum exhibitions.
Tyler Gillespie leads his Open Studio Poetry Workshop
Lab friends who attended his Open Studio were treated to an afternoon workshop in ekphrastic poetry, inspired by visual materials Tyler gathered from the New York Public Library’s extraordinary Picture Collection. It was a welcome opportunity to create together while gaining insight into Tyler’s personal art practice. His students at Ringling College of Art & Design are lucky to have him as a dynamic resource and a thoughtful mentor.
Dr. Patrick Sweeney, Herbarium Collections Manager, Yale Peabody Museum, with AIR Margot Glass
In May, Margot Glass joined the Lab as a resident, bringing her enthusiasm and focused creative energy into the studio. Over the course of the month, she continued work on her intricate gold and silver point illustrations, drawing from—quite literally—inspiration in the surrounding Lab landscape.
A highlight from her residency was a visit to the Herbarium at the Yale Peabody Museum, where Herbarium Manager Dr. Patrick Sweeney set aside an impressive collection of specimens for her to study—most notably, a variety of pressed dandelions and grasses. Gathering with Yale curators and Lab creatives is always a curious deep dive into observation, reflection, and quiet wonder.
Margot’s Open Studio provided Lab friends with a closer look at her meticulous working process. We were all treated to a parting gift of acorn ink made by Margot, and a recipe for creating our own ink from collected lichen samples. It was a lush and water-filled month of May for Margot in residency - she shared that the Lab felt like she was living inside of a terrarium…. a perfect metaphor for how the Lab operates on any given month - a protected and fertile silent environment for all those who enter and settle in.
Janine St.Germain with Rigoberto Luna, curatorial fellow from NXTHVN, and Lab alums Victoria Martinez and Vick Quezada.
We’ve been following the stories of many Lab alums who continue to thrive—creating, evolving, and steadily cultivating their own creative journey.
Just to name a few...
Congratulations to Cary Gitter on the recent release of his book Cammy Sitting Shiva (Penguin Random House). Hats off to Blanka Amezkua for her dedicated work building and celebrating community in the Bronx and Manhattan. Applause as well for Vick Quezada for organizing the Queer Latinx Art Symposium held this month in Berlin, and to Armando Veve for Soft/Cover, his exhibit currently on view at the Fabric Workshop Museum in Philadelphia. A special shoutout to Laura Glazer, whose boundless enthusiasm continues to shine out in the Pacific Northwest—most recently through her involvement in the L.A. Book Fair as well as her on-going work producing published work by young students within library settings. And, bravo to David Opdyke, who began work on his film Waiting for the Future while in residency at the Lab. We loved watching its premiere live, projected up on the Lab's gallery walls last April on WNET, Channel 13.
Big cheers to all the Lab alums!
James Stevenson, Untitled No. 049, undated, oil on canvas, 36 x 48”
And last, but certainly not least—at the start of this summer season, we are also celebrating the work of James Stevenson in a form rarely seen by many: his oil paintings on canvas - featured at the Tori Jones Studio on Block Island. While many of us know Jim Stevenson for his prolific work as a cartoonist and writer for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and for the many children’s books he created over a lifetime, this exhibit offers a rare glimpse into a lesser-known yet deeply compelling side of his artistry. Such beautiful choices were made to include in this June show titled: Porches, Still Lifes, and Connecticut Coasts: Oils by James Stevenson.
Now as we settle in for the warm summer month’s ahead, we look forward to our upcoming artists in residence soon to arrive at Lost and Found Lab for the summer and fall season:
Visual poet, Monica Ong is with us in July, painter Michael Cline will join us in September, and our last AIR for 2025 will be text/textile artist Dianna Frid.
As summer unfolds, we hope all of you find time to make, to pause, and connect — and we look forward to seeing you again at a Lab gathering in the months ahead.
In art and camaraderie,
Janine
Janine St.Germain
Co-Director, James Stevenson Lost and Found Lab