For inspiration for our workshop, we’ll look at food and the role it has played in both our lives and in our culture.
We will spend some time "sifting the ingredients" of our lives to access our own food memories using writing exercises, examining both the "sweet and savory" ways food has been a part of us. As early food memoirist M.F.K. Fisher once noted, when she was writing about food, what she was really writing about were larger things - "about love and our need for it."
This retreat is designed to help you further your personal creative development. We will talk about vivid writing and form and color and we will use words and drawing and painting and collage to respond to the memories and sensations of our experiences. All of our work will be done in a safe and supportive environment where process, exploration, and creative play will be our focus. All levels of experience welcome.
In addition to classes, we will enjoy a walking tour of Oaxaca led by Casa owner and local expert Jane Robison, and we will experience an afternoon of marketing and cooking with Chef Bill Smith, culminating in a feast of our own making. We will take two day-trips to markets and artisan villages beyond Oaxaca, and we will indulge in several meals at beloved local restaurants, including Los Danzantes, which is mentioned in this wonderful NYT article about Oaxaca by Francine Prose: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/26/travel/oaxaca-mexico.html
an excerpt: “Oaxaca is a wonderful place to be, to stroll, to shop, to spend time in the food, flower and handicrafts markets, and — not insignificantly — to eat. And it’s a great walking town. Around nearly every corner in the historical center, you may come upon a bright blue, yellow or orange wall, stenciled with the inventive advertising posters for which Oaxaca is known.”
You will leave Oaxaca satiated with fine food, with some new writing and art skills, with a book of your own showing your work from the workshop (but with room to continue expanding your new techniques and ideas), with an extensive bibliography of resources about food, and with new friends - because there is no better way to make friends than creating and feasting together around the table.