Collage "Art Survival" by Simon Draper

This is the drawing that became the seed for the

idea of Habitat for Artists. I discovered this photo

in the NY Times whilst preparing some ideas for

the show in Pennsylvannia at Abington Art Center. I started to imagine artists being located

in marginal areas and asked to survive (somehow), in contrast to the usual urban setting

of "settling" abandoned or un-used buildings. Here the artist is a different pioneer forced to survive the last remaining wilderness of America. The training that any of us really get to survive under "normal" settings is most times accidental..... especially as artists.