Writing & Art at Fortnight Retreat
I had the huge pleasure of returning to Rebecca Mezoff’s Fortnight retreat at Luna Mesa, near Mancos, CO last week. Because this was my second stay, it felt like home. I was able to settle right in and get to work.
A view of the new adjustable standing desk at Luna Mesa. Stand and write for awhile, then press a button and the desk lowers so you can sit. When you get tired of sitting, you can raise it and stand again! Highly recommended for long writing sessions!
While I did bring some stitching projects to work on, my focus this time was a writing project I’ve been working on this year. It will be a kind of memoir/series of essays/retrospective look at work over the thirty years of my fiber arts career. I’m drawing from my years in the studio and classroom as well as blog posts, personal journals, teaching materials, art school background, and images of my artwork. I’m talking about the challenges facing women artists who are also mothers, daughters, spouses, workers, and community volunteers.
I always feel funny using the word career to describe my work. It’s been such a cobbled-together, up and down affair, undertaken amid years—decades, honestly—of self-doubt and uncertainty. Sound familiar? I hope it will resonate with and encourage other artists on the same path.
You will be hearing more about this in the future. Toward the end of the week I needed to get out of my head and put everything in perspective, so I headed to Mesa Verde, one mile up the road, and did a hike to Petroglyph Point. That was so much fun! Here are some pics from this week at Fortnight and the Mesa Verde hike. Click on each thumbnail to see entire image and caption.
