San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato - Mexico
February 14-22, 2020
We love taking artists to San Miguel de Allende, a UNESCO heritage city that has been home for artists since the 1930s. Cobblestone-lined streets, art galleries, colorful doors that open into mysterious courtyards, alleyways filled with beautiful plantings, centuries-old buildings and, of course, the bells of the pink Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel in the Jardin. You never know what or who you will find in the Jardin, day or night.
Morgan Brig and Geoffrey Gorman loved it in San Miguel so they committed to teaching again in 2020. Casa de la Noche, where we hold our workshops, has a wonderful studio and attached outdoor balcony that is perfect for this class.
ITINERARY
Day 1, Feb. 14. Everyone arrives and we will meet for introductions and walk to our favorite taco stand on the street nearby if everyone is up for it, otherwise, it’s off to bed after a full day of traveling.
Day 2, Feb. 15 Each morning breakfast is served either outside on the patio or inside at the dining table. Your choice.
9:30 We will meet Geoffrey and Morgan in the studio where they will share some of their work and discuss how to allow the surroundings of San Miguel, the color, the patterns, and found objects to become an inspiration for figurative and animal work. Both will talk about their different approaches in conceiving and creating forms and also how each uses human, or part human, part animal or animal to create a finished piece.
We will break for lunch and then Geoffrey will demonstrate how he carves and utilizes foam as an armature for a finished sculpture. Class will work along with the demos. At 4:30 we will break for a quick walking tour and then dinner will be at 8:00 this evening.
Artists carving into foam
Day 3, Feb. 16 Breakfast and then into the studio at 9:30. Geoffrey will demonstrate how to cover the foam with a variety of materials, including canvas or a colored fabric, bike tires, inner tubes and using wire and nails to attach the material to the foam.
Hard to take a pic without Geoffrey moving his hands!
Lunch, then Morgan will teach how to use the mapp gas torches to enamel copper and how to attach a photo decal to it. Each participant has the option to use that as part of the face, or a talisman, or perhaps an image on the body to convey a story or an internal body part. Class ends at 4:30. Free time until cooking class this evening with Chef Ana Elena Martinez.
Joint piece made by Morgan and Geoffrey
Day 4, Feb. 17 Breakfast and then studio at 9:30. This morning Morgan and Geoffrey will give a demo showing how to make appendages/parts: noses, ears, etc. Morgan will also show how these appendages could be made with copper, either brazing and/or hammering them. Participants will start to build their forms.
Morgan teaching how to work with copper
After lunch, Geoffrey will talk about carving wood, using different types of glues and the use of other types of ephemera to complete a sculpture. He will also demonstrate how he rusts and creates a weathered finish on each piece. After class ends at 4:30, there will be free time until dinner at 7:30.
Day 5, Feb. 18 Breakfast We will work in the studio until noon. Then lunch is on your own and you will have the afternoon free to explore San Miguel. At 3:30 we will walk to our friend Hermes Arroyo home/studio and his merry band of mojigangas. You will love them all.
We'll walk down to have dinner near the jardin.
Day 6, Feb. 19 Breakfast and in the studio at 9:30. This morning Geoffrey will talk about how Mexico and its amazing history of dynamic art and artists has influenced and affected his sculpture. It's a full day in the studio with Morgan and Geoffrey assisting when needed. Lunch and dinner.
Day 7. Feb. 20 Breakfast and another full day in the studio. Lunch and dinner.
Ana Elena Martinez, Geoffrey Gorman, Kathie Vezzani and Morgan Brig in San Miguel
In this workshop, Morgan and Geoffrey will share their techniques of creating spectacular mixed media sculptures. We're huge fans, we admit it.
First of all, there's torching, rusting, wire wrapping, metal, enameling, sewing, adding bits of this and that - what's not to love?!
We will focus on heads so that they fit into your suitcase. In our last workshop, everyone made 2-3 sculptures.
This Escape Includes
8 nights accommodation, double occupancy at Casa de Noche
beautiful studio to create in
aiport pickup/drop off at designated time at Leon airport
five days of workshops with Morgan and Geoffrey
all meals except for two lunches and one dinner
Special class with local mojiganga master (the large puppets)
farewell celebration
cooking class
new art tribe
Price: $3,500, limited to 12 people based on double occupancy. A limited number of single rooms are available for an additional $500.
Local Residence Price: $2200, includes lunches, workshop and last evening’s meal -
A $1,000 non-refundable deposit is due upon registration with the final payment due November 15, 2019
Price does not include airfare to/from Mexico or alcoholic beverages.
Airport: Leon International Airport, Guanajuato, Mexico. Code: BJX United's Flight 6091 is a direct flight from Houston that leaves at 6:05 p.m. and arrives in Guanajuato at 8:26 pm. We will have a driver pick you up and deliver you to the hotel which will take about 1.5 hours. Return: We will leave at 9 a.m. on February 22 for the 12:55 pm United flight 6227 to Houston.
Casa de la Noche, is owned by Barbara Poole, also an artist who supports the arts in San Miguel de Allende. Her beautifully renovated B&B is ten minutes from the jardin.
One of the many courtyards at Casa de la Noche
Class samples by Morgan
Geoffrey’s class samples
Some of the wonderful pieces made by the artists in February 2019
Day 8. Feb 21 Breakfast and then in the studio. Morgan and Geoffrey will lead a discussion on finishing the work including ideas on how to display work. You have time to finish your projects. Lunch and the rest of the day is free before we meet for our very special dinner celebration this evening at our friend, Paco Cardenas's home.
Day 9. Feb 22 Trip is over and the vans will leave at 9 a.m.for Leon.
Paco Cardenas
Photo by Sean Reagan
This itinerary may change due to weather, new opportunities or the whim of the group.
Morgan Brig is a mixed media artist from Vashon Island, WA. She loves to capture emotion in her sculptures using multiple layers of media that bring the subtlety of expression to each character. Her layers include etched metal detail, enamel patinas and found objects that suggest the old and familiar, but ask to be viewed in a new light. She often uses language and occult symbols in her designs to support her belief that there is always guidance to be found from external and internal sources as we go through life. There also is playfulness in her design inspired by her love of old metal and tin toys and her desire to lay humor next to truth or fear in her work.
Geoffrey Gorman breathes life into what might be considered to be the detritus of our culture. He constructs both real and fanciful animals using sticks, rusted screws, washers, bicycle tires, old tools, bailing wire, discarded canvas, and other things that are housed in cluttered garages or the backs of closets suffering from neglect. An intense physical process goes into making each work as Gorman builds from a series of elements layer upon layer. He explores the shared identity between animals and humans.
Gorman shows his work at the Selby Fleetwood Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico along with other galleries around the country. Gorman's work is in numerous public and private collections around the United States.