I have a lot of photographs and a lot to share about Squam Art Workshops, so I am going to split it into 2 posts. Here are photographs from Wed and Thur. My next post will have the rest. These are just thumbnails. Click here to see a full slide show of photographs from Spring 2010 Squam Art Workshops.
When Elizabeth asked me to SAW this Spring to photograph, I was so excited, but also a bit unsure if I could make it happen. I already had plans to go to Boston for the weekend to see friends and going away for a chunk of time (5 days) is sometimes challenging having a little one and a husband who works full time. We don’t have any family here locally, so finding wrap around child care isn’t always an easy feat.
Luckily we have great friends that had Trey over after school for some play date fun Wed-Friday, and then Terry and Trey took a trip to see family over the weekend.
So on Wednesday I dropped Trey off and was on the road to New Hampshire. About 3 hours into the 4 hour drive, I decided to pull over to get some lip stuff out of my bag. I walked to the back of the car to discover that in the mad dash to get out of the house on time, I forgot one of my bags. Not the most important bag (camera bag), but a pretty important one (one with all toiletries, shoes and clothes). I was so excited about Squam that I chose not to let it get me out of sorts. I knew I would be rooming with close friends and figured I could borrow what I needed until I got to a store to buy some basics. (Can you guess who lent me most of the clothes I wore by looking at the pictures? Thanks love xo)
I arrived just in time for dinner. Rockywold Deephaven Camps (I got to do all the photographs for the RDC website last summer) has a wonderful dining hall with fresh, delicious food. Each meal offers a delectable salad bar, fresh fruit, yogurt, cheeses, multiple hot entrees – lunch and dinners always include fresh vegetables, meat and starch. Being that I don’t eat flour or sugar, I can testify that they are wonderful at making accommodations for special dietary needs. And I hear the dessert buffet and ever available ice cream bar is super yummy!
After dinner Friday night there were the opening ceremonies. Elizabeth (the director/creator of SAW) gave a wonderful welcoming address. Elizabeth inspires me with her open heart and clear desire to create a nurturing place for creative people to gather for community, creativity and fun. Jenny Doh from Crescendoh was the guest speaker, and gave an amazing talk about how art has impacted and directed her life. Her storytelling ability, mixed with her courage to leave a dependable high standing job to follow her dream of sharing stories of how art saves lives (Crescendoh) made a big impact on me.
In addition to hearing Jenny Doh share her story, we got to hear each teacher introduce themselves and answer a fun question. After introductions and talks, we got a private concert by Jonatha Brooke. If you haven’t listened to her music you must go take a listen. She has a beautiful voice and is a wonderful musician. Even better than her music is her loving nature, sense of humor and big heart. Jonatha is a wonderful friend and artist.
After the Opening Ceremonies I headed off to our cabin. The cabins at SAW (Rockywold Deephaven Camps) are a perfect mix of rustic and luxury camping:) All wood-with big huge sliding windows with screens, beds with crisp white linens and down comforters and pillows, fireplace, huge living room area, kitchen sink, shelves and old fashioned ice box, two bathrooms-one with toilet/sink, the other with shower (making rooming in a cabin with multiple roommates more convenient). And I have to say, going to sleep listening to the loons is just heavenly.
Thursday we were up early to start the day. After a delicious breakfast all attendees headed to class and I ventured off with an artist/friend for a mini photo session. **One of the great things about photographing at SAW is that I get to squeeze in a few one on one photo sessions. (This time I got to do three one on one sessions, that I will share with you soon).
After the session, I headed out to explore and photograph some of the classes being taught. I was wearing a friends pair of boots and after a couple hours on my feet, I got this awful cramp in my foot, so I didn’t get to all the classes and had to resort to walking around for the rest of the afternoon barefoot in the rain. It was actually pretty fun!
I would like to take a moment to share that I am not a fiber artist. I only know the basics of knitting. Terry’s grandmother taught me the knit and purl stitch once when we were vsiiting for the holidays. I thought it would be good to learn to do something that was supposed to be relaxing. I went and bought some yarn and some needles, and knit for a few weeks. Like most things besides photography, I didn’t persist past my initial frustration. I knit a bit too tightly, and didn’t knowing what to do once I had a big square. So I did alot of knitting and then pulling out and then knitting another square, only to pull it out.Eventually I got sick of my plain green yarn and couldn’t rationalize buying prettier yarn, when I didn’t know how to knit more than a square, so I put the knitting needles aside with the intention to try again, but I haven’t yet:) After going to SAW I was pretty inspired to maybe give it another try.
To be continued….
by Thea
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