This evening I felt proud of my sister Rose and happy she had started Old Growth Arts. As a board member with Young Women Social Entrepreneurs - San Francisco, I've been involved with planning the last 4 annual retreats and numerous monthly events. So tonight it began to dawn on me what an impact 10 days amongst other artists in a special place could have, since just 2 days at YWSE retreats are career changing.
This evening we were sitting in the Big House dining room at Leonard Lake, with the artist residents arriving in the dark and others already cooking dinner. Such neat people. Convening in the middle of the woods after the first rain shower of the year, cozy with wood fire heat, big smiles, talking about their various art mediums ... recently strangers.
One brought guavas from her home in Berkeley. Another is a musician who offered to help with my baby any time and had good qualifications — a nanny for 10 years :) Musician Mike from New York City, photographer Lauren from Abu Dhabi ... just started finding who the people are.
As Rose describes it, "Old Growth Arts support artists, thinkers and writers who are young or old, homegrown or international, by providing space and time in an atmosphere that is conducive to reflection, meditation, study and creative labor." They'll create working spaces, make breakfast and lunch whenever they feel like it, share dinner meals, and talk about art ideas.
I set my clay and tools on the Big House porch this evening. Wonder what I'll make tomorrow. Thanks Rose!
(I wrote this post to test the feature "Share This Post" on Facebook and Twitter! Too bad I don't have any photos to share. Will shoot some this week and post as an update.)
