CURRENT ARTISTS

The Caumsett Foundation’s Artist in Residence Program (Caumsett AIR) was instituted in 2023 with the aim of connecting artists of diverse backgrounds and disciplines to our park and community. Participants are required to hold open studio hours and offer a public program while at Caumsett, which plays an important role in the Foundation’s annual programming. The Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve’s historic, environmental and ecological significance create a rich experience for our artists.

APRIL AND MAY 2025

Samuel Ezra Fisch

When I was a child, I dreamt the most amazing dreams. I also had the most amazing pair of pajamas. One evening, while I was wearing these fine pajamas, my little sister Kaela whose birthday is on my half birthday and vice versa, said: "when I was you, I wore those pajamas." Everyone laughed in disbelief of her past life, but I kind of understood. My dreams are still vivid as ever, so when I am awake I wonder about the space I perceive between pajamas. Artistically I make the kind pajamas that might help you remember something important. During the residency program I want to work on paintings and sculptures inspired by the natural environment of the preserve. I have a series of lenticular paintings on burlap that employ nature as metaphor. I also want to keep myself open to experimentation and inspiration from the environment of the residency.

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JUNE 2025

Erwin List Sanchez

My work explores the vibrant tradition of Mexican cartonería within the context of my experience living outside of Mexico. I am fascinated by how culture travels and adapts, transforming and enriching itself in new environments. My creations are primarily inspired by the natural world and its creatures. These fantastical animals, born from the intersection of my Mexican heritage and my present surroundings, become a reflection of my perceived environment. They embody the interconnectedness of our imaginations, demonstrating how we carry our cultural roots with us, allowing them to blossom and evolve in unexpected ways. Through cartonería, I sculpt the hybrid creatures of my imagination, where the familiar forms of Mexican folklore intertwine with the new realities of my present, creating a bestiary that is both rooted and reinvented.

This 4-week residency at Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve will explore the park's natural beauty through Cartoneria Creatures, sculptures inspired by the environment and crafted using traditional Mexican cartonería (paper mache) techniques. The project includes open studio hours and alebrije workshops, engaging the community with the art and Caumsett's unique ecology.

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JULY + AUGUST

Peter Tresnan

My work explores the impact and influence of history and spatial politics in the lived experiences of queer people. I create representational drawings and paintings that expose and explore the ways in which queer people are specifically impacted by power, labor, sexuality, history. I source inspiration broadly: literature, sketching, collage, plein air, nightclubs, the subway, reality television. I develop multiple pieces simultaneously in order to create a conversation across images. My images manipulate light and space, blending techniques of oil painting in order to help me articulate the complexities of queerness as a lived experience.

I will explore how queer people experience the environment and history of the Caumsett Estate by creating a series of works, specifically 3-5 large, 6- to 8-foot oil paintings. I will draw on my lived experiences visiting Caumsett over the course of my life, as well as reading and research into the Gilded Age, phenomenology, and experiences in Caumsett during the residency. I will design programming to invite queer Long Islanders to consider their experiences of Caumsett as a historical, architectural, and environmental place, which will in turn inform the work I create in residence.

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JULY

Julia Forrest

Using film photography with no digital manipulation I pose women in the landscape. By using mirrors, reflections, and forced perspective, I create an illusion in front of the lens. Although they misleadingly appear docile, it is obvious they possess a mysterious power to move the landscape at will. They change shape and scale, picking up parts of the landscape or completely transforming it.

If I am chosen for a residency with the Caumsett Foundation, I will be surrounded by the most ideal environment to perfect my series. Because the world is covered with urban development and the natural landscape is disappearing, I am interested in capturing what is left and using it as a backdrop to my photography. I will have the opportunity to walk out my door and spend all day finding unique spots, meeting people in the community, and photographing landscapes personal to them. In the studio, I will retire to my suitcase size darkroom to develop negatives and hand print photographs on Silver Gelatin Paper. I hope my work encourages people to savor what is around them and become aware that nothing will remain untouched unless hard work is put into place to keep it. I think creating work to raise awareness on the disappearing landscape is extremely crucial at this time. I know that with the Caumsett Foundation, I will no longer feel limited. I am excited to be given the chance to compose photographs that I could not compose anywhere else.

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AUGUST + SEPTEMBER

Christie Jones

My work explores climate change in coastal ecosystems by translating a sense of place through colors crafted from earth pigments into textures inspired by local landscapes. Committed to sustainability, I create these non-toxic paints, using both my artwork and educational workshops to foster awareness and inspire collective action to protect our environment.

As the Caumsett Artist in Residence, I will create a body of work that documents the park’s landscapes through color and texture. During my residency, I will create handmade paints from earth and mineral pigments found within the park (pending permission to collect small rock samples) along with sustainably sourced pigments that I currently use. These natural materials will form the basis of a series of works on paper and canvas, capturing the unique hues and textures of Caumsett’s diverse landscapes. My goal is to visually archive the park’s natural palette while fostering a deeper connection between the community and the land.

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SEPTEMBER

Natasha De Armas

My work depicts abstract forms and figures that are collaged together by intuitively juxtaposing textile materials and stitchery. These textile body iterations conjure feelings of loss and absence, and make something that was, present; while making something that is, absent. I dissect materials to investigate how humans exist in their lived bodies and outside of them. My work questions the perception of the experiences and realities of others as well as my own, the significance of objects in our lives and the meanings they encapsulate overtime.

I work primarily with textiles, found fabrics, discarded garments, paper, thread and other seemingly useless materials and objects. I explore how fabric, garments and our interactions with them can mutate overtime, making our relationships with fabric, clothes and their materiality more relevant rather than transitory and disconnected. At the intersection of material and meaning, my work layers and interweaves narratives of movement, pain, loss and separation.

The use of stitched patterns and repeated mark making parallel the repetition of movement patterns of human beings that is also found in nature’s other creatures. Embroidery and textile work are acts of quiet resistance. Working with fabric and thread allows me to slow down and contrast a world where everything moves at super speed. My recent incorporation of lens based media expands on my inquiry into the depth of being and our relationship to our surroundings.

For this residency, I propose an exploration of memory, presence, and place through textile-based printmaking at Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve. Using frottage and monoprinting techniques, I will create imprints of the natural surfaces found in the park—tree bark, stumps, leaves, and rocks—capturing the textures of the landscape as a form of embodied connection. These printed materials will then be sewn together into layered collages, echoing the act of piecing together fragmented memories and the way land holds traces of time and history. This project continues my inquiry into longing, nostalgia, and displacement, themes central to my practice. By engaging directly with the land, I seek to create a tactile archive of place, transforming transient impressions into material artifacts. The final sewn compositions will function as soft topographies—maps of touch and memory that reflect both personal and collective experiences of connection to land.

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OCTOBER

Corinne Tousey

Corinne Tousey is a Long Island-based fine art photographer specializing in landscapes, nature, interiors, and architecture. Her passion for photography began in high school after taking a film course, where she learned the fundamentals of exposure, lighting, aperture, and composition. That same year, she received her first digital camera—a gift that sparked a lifelong love for capturing meaningful moments.

Driven by a desire to evoke hope, joy, peace, and connection, Corinne’s work emphasizes scale and perspective, allowing viewers to immerse themselves in each scene. Her unique angles invite viewers to imagine themselves within the beauty of the moment, fostering a sense of belonging and wonder. Over the years, Corinne has showcased her work in several galleries, including Red Dot Miami, East End Arts in Riverhead, NY, and The Reboli Center in Stony Brook, NY.

I'd like to document the significant importance of Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve and why historic landmarks are vital for communities. Organizations like the Caumsett Foundation provide educational opportunities for children and adults alike, offering many and varied programs like music classes for young children to winter seed sowing for those wanting to learn how to grow plants in the cold. The beautiful and abundant landscape provides refuge for those seeking tranquility and walks in nature. The cafe serves as an opportunity for families to make it a full day at the park. I would like to connect it to photography, documenting the events, grounds, and architecture in their current states transpiring at Caumsett State Park as a historical record for future generations to learn.

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OCTOBER

Sarah Goldman

“Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer. If we turn our mind toward the good, it is impossible that little by little the whole soul will not be attracted thereto in spite of itself” (Gravity and Grace by Simone Weil).

I am dedicated to the attention it takes one to see painting in nature. Caumsett is a varied landscape of nature and history. The time I have spent in the park, walking, sitting, biking, I believe is a time of meditative activity, but not through the sole activity of seeing the trees, the fields, the paths. It is through an inner dialogue the park has maintained in me from my personal relationship to the park. I paint with little pre-focused meditation on a work. I find work comes to me through the unfolding of the process in painting, without too much prior intervention between myself and the canvas. During a residency at Caumsett, I will develop a series of oil paintings reflecting this relationship. I find a painting of a nest as captivating as an abstract painting with no obvious subject, the same way in which the birds next to the empty field do not feel different from each other. Through the time of the residency I will focus my dedicated attention to Caumsett as not only a setting of natural retreat but of an inner, more nuanced meditative space.