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.

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.