Our Inaugural Artist Retreat

This week my children and I will be leaving home for a self-designed "Artist Retreat." An Artist Retreat is time and space away for people to focus on their creative endeavors: to reflect, research, or produce new works.

Why Am I Going on an Artist Retreat?
I firmly believe that students deserve happy teachers that love kids and are knowledgeable and passionate about the subjects they teach. Travel ignites new ideas for me and I often return happy and rested, ready to engage with others. I'm passionate about the arts and about making work myself, yet find making art in my day to day life nearly impossible under the constant stream of everyday responsibilities.

How Is This Possible?
Can full-time working parents actually intentionally take time to reconnect with their inner artist? Most people, while well meaning, have gently told me that time for my interests will happen once the kids are much older. My soul can't wait ten years. I had to make it work now. As a teacher I have planned breaks, but my home environment guilts me into thinking that other obligations are of more importance. After months searching for retreats that were family-friendly I came to two conclusions: 1) I didn't actually have examples of work that represented my current interests, ideas, or skill that could be submitted to an organization for review and 2) family-friendly retreats were few and far between and expensive!

Undeterred, I realized that I don't need permission or validation from an outside party to just go away and make art. Once this became clear, we found a local AirBnB, just the right distance away from our normal environment to feel "far," and packed suitcases full of art supplies (new or sadly waiting in our closets) to go off make new work.

Our View

I plan to focus on printmaking and watercolor. My children are excited to work with clay. They know the point of our weeklong vacation is to make art, but realistic to the nature of children, I've also brought scores of outside toys to keep their interest. And if need be, our place has a TV.

What Do I Hope to Accomplish?
I plan to build up my portfolio to use as submissions to future formal residencies. My goal is to not leave the premises for the week - it's tempting as a parent to always be on the go, entertaining your children - make 10 new pieces of artwork and develop an idea I have for a children's book. While I will blog for accountability, I hope to not to think or plan too much for the impending school year, and instead treat this time as a way to fill my own cup with creativity and energy.

Bon voyage!