DOE BRANCH
An experiment in making, solitude, and not doing it all alone

Doe Branch is a little piece of land tucked into the mountains just outside Marshall, North Carolina. Another artist and I live and work here in separate spaces, and over time I’ve realized how profoundly this arrangement has shaped my life and my work.

We have our own studios, our own practices, and plenty of solitude, but we are also right here. There is something incredibly fertile about being able to disappear into your work without actually being alone. In these quiet mountains, where isolation can sometimes tip the other way, that balance has been an extraordinary gift.

Lately I’ve been wondering how I might share some version of it.

Last spring, when someone who couldn’t attend one of my workshops donated their place as a scholarship, more than a hundred people applied. We were able to give that place to a young artist who otherwise couldn’t have come. Watching what happened when that door opened, not only in their work but in what they brought to the entire group, stayed with me.

Then came Holding Together. Bringing artists together through that exhibition made me think even more about how much of an artist’s life happens in a vacuum, and what can happen when it doesn’t.

And now, unexpectedly, I may have the opportunity to take on all of Doe Branch for the next year, opening additional living and working spaces here.

I keep imagining small groups of artists and makers coming for stretches of time with their own work and questions. Not a traditional workshop, but time to work independently alongside other people doing the same. Shared meals, conversations, critiques, studio visits, walks, and plenty of time to disappear into the work. I would be here working too.

Maybe something larger grows from it eventually. An exhibition, a publication, a collaborative project, or something I can’t imagine yet.

The part I haven’t figured out is how to make it sustainable and accessible.

Artists need time and space, and often the people who could benefit most from an opportunity like this are the people least able to spend thousands of dollars on it. But I’m an artist too, and maintaining land, housing, studios, and a creative life is expensive.

So I’m wondering whether there is another way. Maybe some people pay the full cost of coming. Maybe others receive scholarships. Maybe someone helps sponsor another artist’s time here. Maybe there are people or organizations who want to help something like this exist.

I want Doe Branch to support the artists who come here, and I need the people who come here to help support the place. I’m interested in whether both can be true.

I don’t have it all figured out yet. Rather than deciding what this should become on my own, I’d like to start by finding out who is out there.

If you can imagine being part of Doe Branch in some way, I’d love to hear from you.

Interested in Doe Branch?

This isn’t an application yet. I’m simply trying to understand who might be interested in something like this and what would make the experience meaningful and possible for you. There are no wrong answers, and nothing here commits you to participating.