Squam Art Workshops Part 2

Thank you, Jen, for the prayer flags in our cabin. I stood and read several and they were beautiful. I'm going to get prayer flags for my studio now. I can think of nothing more fitting.

Several of the participants and I talked about how you could almost feel the presence of previous souls who had trod these lovely paths before us. I felt so safe here.

Every evening was serene, calm and inspiring.

Every evening was filled with laughter, friendship and warmth.

I heard that this is one of the last places where ice is harvested from the lake in the winter and stored on sawdust in an ice house for use by the guests in oak ice boxes in the cabins.

This is the ice house where the hunky boys gathered fresh ice for our cabins each morning. They were kind enough to smile for my camera.

The huge breakfasts put big smiles on our faces. So did the sunshine that peeked in and out at just the right times.

Now I'll show you some of the student work from my classes. I was a poor reporter for you this time as I was wrapped up in the magic myself and for the first two days took very few photos.

So most of the photos I did take were from my expressive faces class. Wow, did I ever have some painters in there!

I hope you'll forgive me for not crediting or linking these images but I want to show a sampling of the kinds of explorations we did in the class.

The fact that these explorations led to some marvelous work was a side benefit. The actual purpose of the exercises was to show how we proceed in experimenting and going out on a limb.

The assignment was to make the faces interesting, to explore without judgment.

There are a few photos from the journaling class I see. Sometimes we mistake fortunate accidents for unfortunate ones. Is there a difference?

Isn't the human imagination wondrous? The inventiveness, the playfulness, the fun of creating?

Beauty in the faces. Beauty in the faces of the makers. I am the witness to beauty.

Several exercises called for faces on funny backgrounds.

Faces on painted backgrounds.

These are the finished paintings; some on canvas, some on paper.

Oh, I love the lady in the bathing cap. I resonate with swimmers, with water, with diving down.

Can you read her words? It says, "holy shit, she said to draw a face!"

The journaling class again. What a wonderful page. Can you see Andy Warhol?

Back to the faces class.

Isn't it interesting how often our own faces resemble the faces we create?

Love the iPod man. It looks like Tracey!

Yes! There were men at Squam too.

This is the end of the so-called student work today. Brilliant work. Every one of the paintings were worthy of their own museum; I was overjoyed at the willingness of everyone to play and to let go.

At the end of the day we retired to our cabins, tired and yet strangely renewed for our lives back home. We are golden stardust as Joni Mitchell once wrote and these are our days of wonder and delight. We will not let anyone keep us from passion, from love, from helping each other thrive. Our hearts are open.