Artists’ Revival Retreat for Women started with this idea, how do you get yourself, as busy creative women, to become more IN your work? Curiously we found part of the answer in a term used for wine making, terroir. This term refers to the ways that grapes are influenced (and there by the wine) by where they are grown. The vines are fully present, rooted and drawing from the air, water, and soil of the place; not anywhere on the earth but that specific location. When your art feels as if it needs to be revitalized it may be perhaps because you yourself have become absent in it.
So this was the question, how do we, facilitators Pamela Underwood and Helen Wilson, help women become present in their art? We felt it needed to begin with establishing a safe gathering for female creatives. It had to be in an undeniably creative location. A location, that in and of itself would open doors to creative energy. A place that would bring women back to the true timeless nature of Art. Mable Dodge Luhan House is such a place. It is a place created just for that purpose, because Taos, as the Pueblo inhabitants already knew, is such a place. Mabel Dodge Luhan House has a long history of creatives from all walks of life, coming to get away from what the world demanded of them, their time and attention.
What Pamela and I know and have witnessed in these retreats is
- When an artist, walks the land, sits and listens to the sounds specific to that location, they begin to open to it and to themselves.
- When an artists takes the time to ask. “Why do those distant drums make my heart race?” she begins to stir something deep within.
- When she picks up a brush and lets the ochre paint drip down the canvas and is reminded of something from her childhood, She opens to curiosity.
When an artist, pulling thread through muslin finds herself attaching two thoughts, one from today and one from years ago, a connection is made.
It is this moment, when a women stands in front of her canvas and feels it in her body that we as facilitators are working towards.
Imagine waking in the same location that painter O’Keeffe, the Mother of American Modernism, did. Sit and journal where novelist DH Lawrence and Mary Austin wrote. Feel within your body the same energy that moved Modern Dance inventor Martha Graham. Join Pamela and I in renewing and revitalizing your creative soul this June 17th thru the 23rd 2018.
For more information click here Taos Artists Revival Mixed Media Womens Retreat 2018
Helen Wilson
MFA, SFAI