Spring. I welcome you with wide open arms!
The past two months have been the beautiful wind up. I'm on a stationary bicycle pedalling like mad to get the lightbulbs to come on. It's happy work and one by one the bulbs are coming into full blaze. There are many and they will light my path for the rest of the year. The pedalling has been so worth the effort.
When one is busy trying to get the lights on, one doesn't have much breath to tell you what she is busy doing. But with every rotation I think of you and me and the fun we will have together. I only have five more birthdays until I'm forty and it's high time that I decided to fill those years up with all of my favorite things. (more to come. more to come.)
I had a dream last night that i was in Mexico walking down an alley narrow enough that I was reaching the walls on each side and running my fingers on the stucco as I walked. I came to a courtyard and saw my father's father, his back turned to me, building a windmill - parts all laid out on a table like a hospital patient being stitched back together. He died the winter before I was born but in my dream he turned to me and said "I remember you. Come help me." He looked just like a younger version of my dad and so I went. The shroud of mystery he's always held in my mind's eye was not there. Then my dad was there too. As he is now and he (with two pairs of glasses - one perched in front of other for maximum magnification effect) stood side by side to his father there at the table and they figured out where to put a bolt. Dad asked me what I thought of the trumpet vine along the courtyard wall that he had been so lovingly tending. I asked for a cutting and he gave me an armful.
My father was born in Mexico where he and his family lived off the land and raised goats and ate pig potatoes. We went there once when I was three and found the hollow tree that they used to hide in. My dad and his siblings and their budding families connected trunk to tail in a CB powered caravan from desert to desert. I had these awesome green and white striped stockings that I pulled above my knee and my brother and cousins caught horned toads and held them for us girlie cousins to gawk at. That was the same trip when my brother and a two or three cousins fell asleep in the back of an uncle's pick up truck en route and Aunt Bonnie had a funny feeling to pull over. Like as if they were lost or something. They found the boys possibly minutes from death from carbon monoxide poisoning. Considering that is similar to how my father's father died, I can imagine that the reality of what could have been was heart-stopping for all the adults. I was probably just running around in the sage brush gathering branches to line the dashboard.
So you see, Mexico holds a part of my family legacy. Somehow I have bloodline in that land. I always have thought I would go back again and I'm so happy to say that this coming October 26 - November 3rd I will be there with two of my most treasured friends and beloved mentors. At the most generous invitation from Rebecca Brooks, Katie Kendrick and Judy Wise and I will be teaching a week long workshop, Pilgrimage In Paint.
If you could only be a fly on the wall in our planning sessions. Man oh man. The excitement is palpable. Judy has immersed herself in San Miguel enough times that she is a wealth of information, the stories and history and colors pour from her spirit when we talk. There is no place and no person that I know of that has seen Mexico the way Judy sees Mexico and you will be expanded beyond any thing you think you know about what it's like to immerse yourself in such a colorful and generous culture. Dia de Los Muertos will vibrate with a whole new level of beauty.
Rebecca has arranged the lovliest of accommodations for us all. Students and teachers alike will commune in a lovely abode with full classroom access, meals, and plenty of time to explore the city. There will even be a full day dedicated to just that - perfectly situated mid week to allow for our creative surges to find center.
I hope to bring my family with me. I hope, I hope, I hope. And I hope you will come too.
Pilgrimage in Paint
three treasured artists
three visions
a holy trinity of creativity
San Miguel de Allende
October 26 - Nov.3 2013
a week to reside in a
charming cloistered setting
just a few blocks from the jardin.
camaraderie, delicious meals, an art room available round the clock,
inspiring days in the studio with the incomparable
judy wise , stephanie lee and katie kendrick
tucking us safely under their wings
and excursions into the always delightful
san miguel de allende.
the art of seeing
armed with journals, sketching tools, cameras and curiosity
we will step outside the courtyard and into the jardin,
the heart and pulse of san miguel.
judy will be our guide as we strengthen the lens of present moment seeing
capturing the world around us,
instilling ease and enjoyment in the powerful and reflective
art of drawing.
back in the art room judy will help us marry our renderings with
a strong collection of her personal favorite techniques
employing collage, acrylics, hot and cold wax, and mysterious layering.
connecting us to the world we inhabit through the ultimate joy of creating.
Stephanie Lee
Legacy In Texture
stephanie will guide us in the inquiry of texture and surface patterns
as we draw on the legacy of ancient and modern carpenters and abode builders of Mexico
to recreate the energy of San Miguel in plaster and wax.
we will look to light and shadow,
sky and vegetation, buildings and people,
to create studies in texture and color that we will finish
with luminous layers of wax.
with simple tools in hand,
we will create conversations in mark making within the layers of our mediums
to honor and represent all the layers of legacy that guide us.
using some of our creations we will create a tiled portfolio
to contain all our works from this beautiful week.
Awakening Inner Visions
katie will lead us on an interior journey within the contours of our hearts.
together we will explore our inner creative world
fueled by the inspiration of san miguel,
with a nod to the divine,
creating a retablo dedicated to the sacred feminine within us all.
with cardboard, acrylics, graphite, collage and love
katie will unleash our passion, awakening
our inner muse with wild abandon.
On our final class,
Judy, Katie, and Stephanie will converge to collaboratively guide us
through the final stages of completion of our works
as well as the construction of a painted pouch that,
up to that point, will have been a working surface that we will transform into
a narrative closing chapter to our shared pilgrimage in paint
all wrapped up in the arms of exotic san miguel!
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