MixedMedia

How gorgeous of everyone to come on up (and over) to the Green Mountain State for the first ever Peace Tiles “happening!” We hailed from Morocco, Canada, the Land of L.A., Oregon, Germany, the midwest and Longisland…! Just the best mixing up of people ever.

The workshop opened Thursday evening with some great local food prepared to perfection by Kismet along with the glad sounds of Wagtail, a local foursome with a great sound something Appalachian meets Cape Breton – totally Vermont. Tents were spread around, fresh hay in the shed loft, and a few us indoors made for comfortable accommodations all. We had about 50 folks for the Thursday community welcome – maybe a few less than hoped for but it was the opening of the Northeast Kingdom Craft festival as well. Can’t blame an artist who chooses to make a living over some free food and drink.

Friday began with a really lovely visit to Zutano, a local small business opened 20 years ago by a photographer and designer couple from New York. Legend has it that when their first daughter was born, Zutano founder Ulli and Michael decided to fill a gap in babies apparel: there just wasn’t any affordable and lovely clothing around. Who knows how many cuts, snips and shears later they have an astoundingly colorful and playful line of clothing they distribute to more than 2,000 boutique outlets across the country – and a few around the world. A huge shout out to Michael and Ulli and everyone at Zutano for making us feel so welcome.

On our return it was time to jump into Peace Tiles. We had a short introduction to each other and to the process, followed by an opportunity to create our own works. The primary aim was really just to loosen up and get everyone familiar with the tools and media we’d be using over the next 48 hours – Golden polymer mediums, A2 acrylic paints, paper, etc… We wound the day down with a great swim at Joe’s pond, a gorgeous sunset, and a trip to the Danville Country Fair.

Saturday broke cool and fair. Busy day of collage-making ahead. With a tailwind behind us we set off into some more “discplined” exploration of the Peace Tiles process by simulating a workshop as it would be run – a hybrid of the “training for trainers” approach and a youth workshop. Selmia Raoui, a wonderfully gifted (in so many ways) artist and clothing designer from Morocco gave me much insight into how reflective writing could be built into the process as well. We basically took the shared theme of, “What is your mission” as a starting point to approach our work. It was amazing to see the proliferation of ideas and techniques as we all dove in, first into creating backgrounds and then into the foreground/narrative elements.

Friday night was a delicious blur. Selima and her gang of sous-chefs prepared an amazing Moroccan feast of cous-cous with a variety of sauces, chicken and vegetable. Good food and drink capped a really inspiring and insight-filled day. I think we were all a bit tired, but really enjoying the opportunity to share in other gifts – our warmth as the setting sun failing rays slipped behind the western ridges. The dinner was followed by a couple of films along with sparklers and desert of rhubarb, peach and cherry pies. For the late night crowd there were even s’mores.

Sunday came too quickly – Saturday many had worked long and hard at their tiles – some of the more prolific among us producing several outstanding ones! My glacial creative pace yielded but one). We had the chance to discuss our works and then ‘curate’ them into a single large composition, or mural. It was so amazing to have a very personal tile that carried an intentional, permanent, somehow reverent aspect to it at the center. I think we were all pretty amazed at how the work hung together by the end of our time together. Finally, when it was all complete, we had the chance to exchange our tiles with one another – a really special treat that gave us each a personal and lasting memento from the workshop.

And so I come away feeling so blessed, grateful, thrilled to have shared such an envigorating, positive time with each of you. Wishing us many more such opportunities on this crazy Peace Tiles journey. Here is the final mural: