According to the farmer poet Wendell Berry, the good life includes sustainable agriculture, connection to place, the pleasures of good food, good work, local economics, fidelity, frugality, reverence, and the interconnectedness of life. Inspired by his poetry, this workshop is three days of eating, painting, and exploring the idea of gratitude and the Good Life.
The work we do will be collaborative. We will share our materials, ideas, recipes and time, while learning numerous surface techniques to create the papers we will use in these collages, including itajime shibori. Many yummy techniques will be explored, including drawing, painting, collaging, lettering, and paste paper. These will add delicious layers and textures to your pages.
Each of you will be asked to contribute one recipe to me ahead of time. The recipe should be one that makes you feel grateful, either for the cook who gave it to you, the garden or farmer that provided the ingredients, or simply because it makes you feel wholly alive to eat it. You will each receive a set of the class recipes for use in your book.
We will cook and share two dinners (optional, $15 Friday night and $25 Saturday night) using the most whole ingredients available to us from local growers and farmers. We may even draw them. Don’t worry, no drawing or cooking experience is necessary!
Each of us will create our own collaged and painted Good Life Cookbook. It will contain poems and recipes that we share, our collaged pages, and colorful tidbits of love and gratitude. In addition, you will experience a time of graciousness in a community of like-minded souls.