Upstream

Just over a year ago, on Mothers day 2025, the first performace of Motherland / La Madre Patria by @_stellarvisions_ and @teatroalmaslibres , a play written in collaboration and supported with time and space by @_up_stream , premiered to a full house in Santa Rosa. Since then they've taken the work to Hollywood and now we are over the moon to be hosting a very special reading of the play for the closing of Three Years Upstream @dreamfarmcommons this Saturday, May 2nd, at 2pm. Please join the women of Teatro Almas Libres, accompanied by the puppet: Motherearthliness as they share their deeply personal and profoundly moving work.

A snapshot from each of work in Three Years Upstream exhibition @dreamfarmcommons Thank-you to all the incredible artists that have joined us on residency - it’s a beautiful delight to know you and share your work 💗 @jblackwellstudio @ximaps @emilyzulllo @vicwomg @rodgepodgemusic @kyungwonsong_ @wolfchirp @emmafmade @tallgrill @l.songwu @freight.train.lady @yasmeen.abedi @crabkin @_stellarvisions_ @sarahgracegraves @vomit_party_ @shuttertoast @jamesthacher @abadraws @bangbangboomerang The show is open Friday and Saturday, and by appointment until May 2nd and will host Performances by @vicwomg on the midisteel on April 25th at 2pm & @_stellarvisions_ with @teatroalmaslibres on May 2nd at 2pm curated by @hotwater_cloud & @charlottewendylaw

dropped off two leaping ballpoint coyotes and the PAWPAD™ at @dreamfarmcommons for 𝓉𝒽𝓇𝑒𝑒 𝓎𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓈 𝓊𝓅𝓈𝓉𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂, a group show of @_up_stream artists, curated by @hotwater_cloud @charlottewendylaw , opening april 17 and on view through may 2 🌀 this show will be full of incredible work!! and there will be a @vicwomg midisteel performance/demo at 2pm on april 25!

It's always incredible and this year was no exception - our curious minds, and beating hearts, truely expanded as we brought this years residency to a close with an open house! The 7 artists that joined @_up_stream this year worked on comics, coyote centered computational games, beaded images of seaweed that reclaimed time pixel by pixel, building learning and recording an album on a new instrument, an animation that blended 3d and stopmotion to f*CK ICE, studies for new paintings, and fieldword studies of our very real landscape. There was much strange beauty to behold and we are beyond excited to begin the process of bringing the work of our three years of artist together in a show at @dreamfarmcommons opening April 17th Truely grateful as always to our founders @runmayarun @kolari @_up_stream is run by @hotwater_cloud and @charlottewendylaw Thank-you so much to @abadraws @vomit_party_ @jblackwellstudio @bangbangboomerang @wolfchirp @vicwomg @l.songwu

We are totally thrilled to have spent the weekend at @_up_stream welcoming our third, very special, cohort of wonderful artists and humans. @abadraws @wolfchirp @vicwomg @bangbangboomerang @vomit_party_ @jblackwellstudio @l.songwu & we had a beautiful evening with the founders before the all the artists landed. We have so much gratitude to @runmayarun @kolari 
 It means so much to work in this generative way and find strength in our growing micro-communities. We are so excited to see what evolves within this precious window of time and space. An open day is planned for March 7th and a three year exhibition featuring the work of all Upstream artists is coming up in April 2026 @dreamfarmcommons @_up_stream is run by @hotwater_cloud and @charlottewendylaw

Yes we are excited for 2026, and after another wildly inspiring host of applications, we are elated to annouce our resident artists for Upstream #3 🥁🥁🥁 Aabha Sewak is an experimental animator from Bangalore, India, based in Brooklyn, NYC. Their work combines digital techniques with traditional ones to explore technology as a medium, and its ability to adapt and transform in relation to moving images to explore otherworldliness, identity and sustainability. John Konrad is a cartoonist and illustrator from Tucson, Arizona. His work ranges from humor cartoons to narrative comics about memory and isolation. He has been published in such publications as The New York Times and The Believer. Vic Wong is a multi-instrumentalist and creative technologist based in San Francisco Specializing in jazz guitar, and a maker, fabricator, and software and hardware engineer of niche musical equipment. Helen Shewolfe Tseng is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and wildlife naturalist whose practice engages curiosity, myth-making, and the folkloric trickster, and has taken the forms of works on paper, experimental publications, games, rituals, performance lectures, participatory works, and computational poetry. Mary Welcome is a multidisciplinary cultural worker collaborating with remote landscapes and rural communities. Her work expands upon the rural condition, exploring both issues and assets of place, and advocating for diverse, resilient, culturally-rich shared realities across the rural-urban divide. L Song Wu is an artist originally from South Florida, currently based in NoCal. Her paintings examine the tension between intimacy and alienation, prompting viewers to confront their own sense of belonging as well as their constructions of place, power, and positionality. Jillian Blackwell is an interdisciplinary artist whose work concerns the peripheral and essential. She is a writer and Editorial Coordinator for DARIA Art Magazine and runs Chore Gallery, a project space situated inside a cabinet in the kitchen of her studio appartment. Upstream is an artist-run residency hosted by @hotwater_cloud and @charlottewendylaw founded by @kolari and @runmayarun

⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ Upstream 3! We’re delighted to share that our application window for Upstream 2026 is open! 🔮🚪 Located in the Sierra Foothills, on route to Yosemite National Park. Upstream welcomes applications from artists, writers, and creative practitioners for a 2 week residency, running from 02/22/26 until 03/08/26. There are up to 6 residency spaces available, split over two houses. These homes both seeped in nature are within 15min walk / 3 min drive of each other. The application window will be open for 3 weeks. The deadline to apply is October 1st 2025. Artists are chosen by a selection committee and we will notify successful applicants by November 10th. DM for more info and a link to the application form. We look forward to hearing from you! Upstream #3 call out images features the work and work in progress of last years incredible residents. @emilyzulllo @emmafmade @jamesthacher @_stellarvisions_ @rodgepodgemusic & @kyungwonsong_ @freight.train.lady

What a joy to meet these incredible artists and launch @_up_stream .2 last weekend. We can’t wait to see you all again and sink into the effects of time and space on your making. @_stellarvisions_ @freight.train.lady @emmafmade @emilyzulllo @jamesthacher @rodgepodgemusic @kyungwonsong_ Upstream happens because of @hotwater_cloud @charlottewendylaw @kolari @thinkmaya

After receiving a host of stunning applications to Upstream we are delighted to announce the seven artiss that will be on residency in 2025. Emily Zullo: a cartoonist and animator based in Queens, New York. Her work typically jumps between page and screen, with an autofictional subject matter that is consistent throughout. @emilyzulllo Emma Fenton-Miller: an artist and educator based in Oakland, CA. Their practice focuses on hand-processed pigments and fiber grown and/or foraged from their immediate surroundings. @emmafmade Gabi Orion: a musician, writer, performance artist, and educator from Point Reyes Station, CA. Across all media, their work is seeded in the tradition of magical realism. Gabi’s primary focus these days is her songwriting project Freight Train Lady. @freight.train.lady Jackie Katz: a radical educator, human rights activist and social practice artist. She is the founder and facilitator of Teatro Almas Libres, a theatre group celebrating and demanding farmworker and domestic worker rights for LatinX women in Sonoma County. @_stellarvisions_ James Thacher: an experimental animator and teacher based in Brooklyn. He utilizes hand-made animation techniques to explore ideas of vision, memory, and historical struggle. @jamesthacher Kyungwon Song: a Korean-born independent animator based in the Bay Area. Her animations often depict non-fiction subjects, and her main media are early film techniques and stop-motion. @kyungwonsong_ Roger Kim: an artist that uses music, text, interactive media, images, and sculpture to explore issues related to the Korean diaspora, including the evolution of traditional practices. Roger publishes puri zine about Korean history, is the founder of Kkiri Kkiri Samulnori, and facilitates workshops with Hwa Records collective. @rodgepodgemusic Upstream is an artist-run residency hosted by @hotwater_cloud and @charlottewendylaw founded by @kolari and @runmayarun

!!!Upstream 2025 Update!!! The dates have changed 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁 New dates are Feb 22 - March 9th Welcome dinner Feb 22nd Closing sharing March 8th Leave at leisure March 9th DM for application ❤️

Our application window for Upstream 2025 is open! 🔮 We invite applications from artists, writers, and creative practitioners for a 2 week residency, running from 02/17 until 03/02. DM for link to application We look forward to hearing from you

Getting deeply into the details today @dreamfarmcommons We’re open this weekend to share the work of our first artist cohort and wonderful group of humans. Pop by Friday 4/5 from 2-8pm @sarahgracegraves will perform somewhere between 5-6pm, or Saturday 4/6 from 12-6pm. Feature work by @crabkin @yasmeen.abedi @shuttertoast @ximaps & @tallgrill (go see Anna’s show at adobe books if you’re in SF)