Arteles Catalogue 2023-2020

Back to Basics program / JULY 2022
Natasha Gilmore
USA
About
Natasha Gilmore is a writer and bookseller from Idaho,
currently based in NYC.
Novel second draft
Arteles was my first residency, and I came with grand plans
of revising the first draft of my novel into a publishable
final draft to send out. Instead, the time and space allowed
my mind to unspool. No longer in a rush to write in stolen
moments around work and life allowed me to greet the whole
project at once (my wall of post-it notes, helped, too) and
to locate a structural flaw in the book that required some
significant rewriting. This flaw, and the resulting rewriting,
were noticed because of a deep reconnection to the purpose
of the work that inspired me to begin it in the first place. I
started on that rewriting process in my final days at Arteles
and left with the first few pages and an outline/work plan
for a significantly better book. Mostly, I was surprised by
the other residents. I expected to be holed up in a room by
myself cranking out work. Instead, time in the landscape
and with the other residents inspired my own work and
opened up my imagination. I felt freer and more confident as
an artist because of the encouragement, support, and art I
encountered.