Marc Swanson, Resident Artist Lecture 2014

Artist Marc Swanson gives an autobiographical lecture at Skowhegan, reflecting on his experiences growing up in Rural New England and his later move as a young adult exploring the queer Club Scene in San Francisco. Swanson talks about these two specific experiences and how it has allowed him to synthesize different moments in his life. Swanson also talks about the impact Skowhegan had on him as a participant in 2000, his time as a graduate student in Bard College, and his subsequent move to New York to become an established artist. Throughout the lecture, Swanson shows slides that explore his interdisciplinary practice as an artist reflecting ideas of memorialization, identity, cinema, historical queer memory, environmental landscape, among others. Finally, Swanson tells the participants of the important job they have and he has to get out of our own individual ways, to confront what we are using to protect ourselves, and strip those things away. When we do this is when we can reach new growth as artists.