Art Retreat Week 2026

This year was a different kind of Art Retreat Week. What I’m learning here in my fourth year is that allowing the week to unfold without expectations is a bit of a learned skill. In previous years I’ve worked on a lot of smaller things with high output. This year I worked on a larger project with a much lower output. I did some writing and thinking about the project to figure out the scope of the work. Both ways are good work but expecting one and getting the other can be a bit of a shock.

I went into the week with a list of things I could do. It’s always nice to have a list to pull from. That means on any given day I can change directions while still staying on the path. My list:

I knew I couldn’t possibly finish all of these! Gelli printing alone is a two day affair with setup and cleanup! But I haven’t Gelli printed in a long time so I wanted it on the option list.

Saturday and Sunday

Art retreat week actually started with a studio clean this year. I spent most of Saturday and a bit of Sunday going through and purging items I don’t use anymore. So I ended up with three bags of trash, about twenty books to donate to the library, a box of supplies to send to Michelle, and a box of supplies to donate. I also remade my alter space in honor of Art Retreat Week. (It’s the header pic above.) Finally, I dusted, swept, and mopped so things were clean to kick off my week.

I ended up writing a bit about my new alter in my studio journal:

In the back is my new poster from the Forbes Pigment Collection. On the right is my giant ceramic palmistry hand. In front of that is my painted wooden Blue Footed Booby from Galapagos (Michelle has her twin) and a button I made in college that is full of art inspiration. The tiny Happiness book with the giant pink tassel I made last year is to the left of the palmistry hand. To the left of that book is my golden Hamsa hand holding some stones for creativity and inspiration. To the left of that is a wooden icon of an angel in a flower garden that Cardelia gave me for my birthday and of course, my crocheted emotional support shrimp.

After I put these things together it struck me that it has: two hands to make the work, pieces that remind me of the loving community I have, and pieces that remind me that I make for the love of making.

And so now of course, I have to redo this alter every year because this did so much to foster the spirit I was looking for this week.

Monday

I decided to start off the week with a project that would just get my hands busy.

I’d had this graham cracker box for a while and I loved the size of it. It ended up with 144 pages of 68lb sketch paper in six signatures that are covered with patterned blue or yellow paper to match the box. I took video but this is the only photo I snapped before I dropped it in the mail to a friend.

I also watched one of the classes I had on hand while I flipped through the Alisa Golden book Making Handmade Books to see if there were any book structures I wanted to work on.

After dinner, I worked on my color test sweater. I had high hopes that I could finish it this week as well.

Tuesday

I jumped straight into the project that has the working title of Barbie Voynich. It’s probably actually going to end up being The Empress in my In Search of Alchemy series with something about Barbie Voynich as the subtitle. I mentally made the decision AGES ago to start with a particular pattern for the edging of what is going to be a scroll. The pattern absolutely did not work when I pulled it up and tried to get started on it. So I dropped that pattern and went to my pattern reference books.

I often start with a shape in my mind for these things and then hit the pattern reference books to find something that matches that mental image. Sometimes its really close and then sometimes I find something that I wasn’t expecting but that addresses the problem I’m trying to solve in a more interesting way. A “more interesting way” was the solution here.

I worked on it all day and continued after dinner. I snapped this pic and if I’d looked at it more closely at the moment I took this pic, I would have seen the mistake. Foreshadowing of the pain to come on Wednesday.

I also continued to watch a class/documentary on Van Gogh while I was crocheting.

Wednesday

Wednesday morning when I looked at what I had made on Tuesday, I didn’t love the dark gray. AND I found the mistake. Lots of times I can fudge a crochet piece when the stitch count isn’t correct. This wasn’t one of those times. It was a lotta stitches that would mess up the fan pattern in the rows to come. I tried to unravel it but the thing about fuzzy yarn is that the long fibers get tangled and instead of unraveling it catches and breaks. So I abandoned the piece knowing I had another skein of that pink mohair. (When I have to give up on a piece like this, I don’t throw it away. It goes in my stash for potential use in the future. So all is not lost!)

Since I didn’t love the dark gray I took some time to swatch some other choices:

I also took some time to make a mind map about my childhood Barbie experiences to help shape how I’m going to move forward with work on this piece. It was some interesting thinking time about Barbie and how I played with my Barbies as a tween. I was also struck by the difference in societal expectations of Barbie in the 80s vs. Barbie now. While outer beauty is still a focus today, vocation is also a huge focus. I’m glad kids today get that wider range of options to identify with.

Thursday

I kept working on the edging and watched more of the Vincent Van Gogh class/documentary. I also met with my friend Elaine. She and I meet most weeks to talk through issues we are having in our work. Then we spend some time coworking as our schedule allows. Both of us work out of home studios so having a coworking session once a week helps us feel like we aren’t the only person on the planet toiling away.

Friday

I had some out of the house things to do but I did finish the edging!

Saturday

I washed and blocked the edging to it’s final size:

Sunday

I finished my sweater I’ve been working on off and on this month:

Yes, it’s a tv test pattern. You have to be a certain age to recognize it. 💀

Take aways from Art Retreat Week 2026

• I liked having two weekends included in my time this year. It just so happened to work out that way because my partner was on work travel. The extra four days made it feel more vacation time festive.
• While I do love the high output weeks where I come out of it with a ton of collage fodder and multiple finished projects, this was still a good week. I liked the slower pace. I gave myself more mental space to ponder what I’m doing.
• I’m thrilled to be going into the second half of 2026 with a clean space. I really didn’t anticipate how much better my space would feel when I got rid of the stuff and mopped the floor. I know, who could have predicted??
• While I kept good notes on what I was doing, especially the project directions for the edging and what book it came from, I didn’t do much in the way of end of the day feelings note taking. I’m just so out of gas at the end of the day to spend additional time noodling about how I feel about the thing I just put so much mental energy into isn’t something I can gear up for. Oh well.

If you are interested in reading about previous Art Retreat Weeks you can check them out here.

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