Join Kate and Jen for an alluring journey of exquisite bookmaking and mixed-media art techniques merged with mindfulness teachings and personal growth practices. Over the course of this immersive weeklong experience, you’ll embark on a journey of self-discovery and creative expression all while being safely ensconced at La Cascade, a beautiful 400+ year old stone home and retreat experience in Durfort, France. By the end of the retreat, you will leave with a tangible and beautiful representation of your journey and a renewed sense of empowerment when you return home.

Theme for our time together: Self-discovery, inner reflection and Revealing One’s Wings – metaphorically as art and authentically in real life.

Kate will be teaching the art making portion of the retreat. As a professional fulltime artist and highly sought after instructor, Kate knows how to refine her student’s skills and bring out their best work, especially in an immersive retreat setting where there’s lots of time to nurture and develop each person’s unique artistry and personal narrative. 

The “Reveal Your Wings” art project is comprised of a four-signature fabric book focusing on an angel theme. Here’s how Kate’s plans to approach this brand-new workshop created specifically for our collaborative retreat in the South of France:

 “Our theme can be interpreted in many different ways and depends upon the interpretation of the individual student and how they wish to approach their book. My angels are fractured and broken, only to emerge stronger and more genuine. Though I’m creating and using the imagery of angels, I am really talking about myself when I created this beautiful book.

 I’ve done a lot of intense work with Jen at a time when I was so broken that I was barely present in my own life. There was a lot of recovery work that I needed to do, and I had the courage to face and change in my own life. Angels to me are humans that have been transformed to their higher selves through a profound metamorphosis. To put it simply, life kicked them in the butt and they rebounded tenfold.

So much of this book will be influenced by our intimate time together in this ancient French village. The first day, we have a private shopping date with a local artist’s atelier in Durfort who specializes in French vintage fabrics, trims and ephemera. This is our chance to gather and curate our collection to make our fabric book, so in this project we will be taking home a piece of Durfort along with our memories and experiences. This is, literally, a book that can only be created in France because of the unique and rare pieces we will be purchasing during our invitation-only experience and then immediately turned into works of art. Our vintage fabrics will then be embellished with painting, stitching, collaging and stenciling.

Some of the techniques you will learn are image transfers, faux tintype photographs, collaging and mark making, painting, traditional and experimental stitching, joint compound stenciling, book binding and artistic layering.

Here’s an overview of our studio time together (We will also be going on joyful excursions and learning about mindfulness and presence with Jen):

Day 1- Picking out our vintage textiles and ephemera for our book, going back to the studio and curating them into a 4 signature book. The number of pages in our signatures is up to you. We will discuss our themes and collect images that speak to us.

Day 2- We work on image transfers, making tintype photographs, stenciling and joint compound applications

Day 3-Collaging, mark making and painting as well as stitching

Day 4-Binding our book and working on our pages

Day 5-Finishing up, show and tell and group discussion.

When we are not on our exhilarating excursions or in the studio with our hands-on making, we will be working with Jen on the reflective and intuitive part of our Revealing Our Wings metaphor. To this end, we will meet right after breakfast each morning (except Saturday Market and Sunday Vide Grenier) to begin with an easy 10-minute guided meditation designed to elicit feelings of calm, peaceful energy and setting a positive tone for the day’s creative activities. Jen will pull wisdom cards at the end of the session each morning from her Joy FULL Deck for Creatives, Healers and Feelers. This can be used as either a creative or reflective prompt for our studio time.

After lunch we will gather again for another short lesson in mindfulness and presence. The exercises will vary between:

• Breathwork practices to help you release stress and connect more deeply with your creative intuition. Learn how to easily move your nervous system from one of high stress to one of peace in under 5 minutes. These tools are game changers for daily life!

• Journaling ideas and reflective questions related to the theme of Revealing One’s Wings to explore your inner world and document your weeklong journey.

• An exciting creative visualization journey that unlocks your imagination and ignites the exploration of new ideas.

• Timeline creative visualization - as we get toward the end of our week together, this session will teach your how to visualize the new aspirations and goals that have bubbled up during our week together and we will set these into your future timeline. Trust us, this is such a cool personal growth technique that is used by professional artists and top athletes to get and stay at the top of their game. 

• Ho’oponopono, an ancient Hawaiian forgiveness technique to release old hurts and realign yourself to those you love the most in your life.

• Grounding and Protection: Participate in a gentle grounding practice to cultivate a sense of balance and harmony, both physically and mentally, supporting your overall well-being and artistic flow. Learn an effective energetic protection and shielding technique so that when you return back to normal life you have new tools to keep others negative energy at bay and out of your creative bubble.

After dinner and before bed, anyone who wishes to join Jen in an evening stroll throughout the quaint village and lush community park is welcome to lace up their sneakers. Mindful walking, also known as moving meditation, teaches us to be fully present in the sights, sounds, scents of nature and can inspire your artistic practice. It doesn’t get dark until late in the evening so an after-dinner walk is a lovely way to wind down from the day’s fun activities.

“Creativity is a unique expression of our individual souls. An artist, by her very own inherent curious nature, knows her purpose is to explore the deepest aspects of humanity. It is through our inner work with ourselves that we can be a mirror for others. We are the bearers of truth and beauty for our weary world. It takes courage to revel one’s wings. This workshop is more than a vacation, it’s a call to authenticity” – Jen Cushman

Join us for this unique retreat where art and personal growth intertwine, and let the enchanting South of France inspire you to reveal your wings and soar to new creative heights.