squam art workshop

I taught a boat making  class at The Squam Art Retreat in the beginning of June.  It was my first time at  Squam  and my first time teaching anything ever.  Teaching was a leap of faith sort of thing and I think it went well – I didn’t spontaneously combust or anything and everybody made truly great boats. I liked teaching more than I expected to, so much so I hope to do it again soon – maybe here in NYC .  The class was held in the nature center – Sugar House – it’s a  camp so all the buildings have names.

squam classroom

I had wonderful students – skilled, generous and lots of fun.

julie's boat

I have written a few tutorials but participating in other people’s very individual processes, feeling their enthusiasm and having a peek into their imaginations was an interesting shift in perspective. I left with some new energy for my own work and pretty fired up about teaching again .

student boats

And  I made new friends  including some from right here in Brooklyn :  lovely and talented Jessica  Marquez – she has a book coming out in October ( congratulations!)  and   Rebecca Ringquist ,   I have  been a fan of her work for a very  long time  – she gave me two of her beautiful  hand screened embroidery samplers.

rebecca ringquist samplers

I wish I had taken more pictures. I saw the biggest weirdest bug I’ve ever seen in my life marching up a dock and did not take a photo.  The lake and the forest and the turn of the century cabins  are astoundingly beautiful and so up my alley – not one picture.  I was too busy having a fabulous time.  Other people took lots of great photos though-  there is a flickr group here.

Squam June 2012

(photo by Christine Chitnis)

3 Comments

  1. what is that thing about not taking the picture?
    I have been having too many days of not taking the picture.
    No reply ness, love your work ♥

  2. I’m so glad you took a chance and taught. How wonderful that you enjoyed it and had such a great time at the camp grounds. That bug sounds fascinating. Yeah, I blogged about one of your sailboats before and it’s one of my most popular posts. I think people really like them. I’m glad you could teach in person how to make them.

Comments are closed.