Shakerag Workshops

I have been working at Shakerag for the past couple of years. I really love it. Last year was amazing. I was a work study and participated in Chris Bucklow's "Developing a Visual Language". Chris Bucklow is a painter and photographer from the UK, you can see his website {here}. I met some incredible photographers, had great conversations, ate wonderful food, and just enjoyed being on the mountain and having some time to myself everyday.

This year I was a Studio Assistant for Susan King, a photographer and book artist from KY. Her workshop was all about developing ideas for artist books. We were fortunate to have a perfect mixture of personalities (you can see a few of them above) in that workshop so our conversations were incredibly inspiring. Best of all I had the opportunity to renew my friendship with Lesley Patterson Marx.

The above image is from Shanna Leino, a book artist from NH. I was her Studio Assistant this year as well. You can view her books and her beautiful handmade bookmaking tools {here}. She taught Late Coptic Binding. We built our books from scratch; pasting papyrus sheets together to make our boards, cold tooling leather covers, and hand filing brass pegs. It was one of those "working til the wee hours of the morning" classes, but so worth the effort. Shanna has a gift for bringing people out of their shells, at least she did that for me.

The above image is from Dan Essig, who I will be the Studio Assistant for next year. Check out his website {here}. There are still spots available in his class and you can register at the Shakerag Workshop site {here}. If you ever have the opportunity to take a workshop ANYWHERE...you need to do it. Any new experience is an opportunity to grow artistically, emotionally, and spiritually. Many places offer scholarships or work study opportunities. It won't hurt to call and see if you qualify. DO A WORKSHOP THIS YEAR!