Authentic Travel and Tours presents:
“Felting the Southwestern Landscape”
A workshop and tour in Santa Fe, New Mexico
April 17-26, 2016
Last chance to sign up for the tour is February 20th!
Posts Tagged With: Santa Fe travel
Let’s make art and visit Santa Fe!
Southwestern Art and Universal Symbolism
There is no better way to delve into the minds of people who lived long ago than through their art, symbols and stories repres
ented visually. We can learn so much about a group of people by absorbing and studying what they created. Rock carvings and paintings, ancient pottery, and design motifs still seen in weaving all speak to techniques handed down from parent to child. What is so interesting to me is that so many of these motifs are seen in cultures around the world, as if there are symbols and designs that all people are drawn to making. We are so fortunate that some cultures have honored artistic traditions, so in a way, we are looking ba
ck in time when we see contemporary art. Notice the same wave pattern in these examples of pottery from the Andrea Fisher Gallery in Santa Fe. While on our Fiber Art tour and workshop in April, we will be spending some quality time at the gallery, seeing older and newer pottery from many pueblos and discussing the intricate patterns, decoration and symbolism. At the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture we’ll hear a guided talk about the even older art and explore the symbolism and motifs used in the past–fascinating! I am looking forward to seeing how being immersed in this beautiful art can be applied to our own creative pursuits in the workshop. I have always been interested in universal symbols- the spiral, square, circle, equidistant cross and triangle, and came across a book by Angeles Arrien called Signs of Life. The book explains the use of these symbols cross culturally and shows artwork that uses them. We’ll be discussing this in the workshop and hopefully, be inspired to explore the meaning of the symbols in our own work. I have done a series of felted pieces exploring this, as in this example: 
You’ll see several of the universal symbols represented- I wanted to see how they might affect my mind and composition as I worked, and found it very enlightening. I look forward to the Santa Fe workshop and tour, and sharing the richness of the art there with you!
Categories: All posts, Fiber art tours, Ireland, Santa Fe
Tags: artist led tour to Ireland, contemporary Pueblo pottery, cultural tours to Santa Fe, felt making in Santa Fe, feltmaking tours, prehistoric art, Pueblo Pottery, retired educator tours, Santa Fe tours, Santa Fe travel, scholar led tours in Ireland, Tours to Pueblos, universal symbols, Wild Atlantic Way
Fiber art workshop-Santa Fe overview
If you love art and travel, our upcoming fiber art workshops are for you! The Santa Fe workshop will take place in April and promises to be a truly unique and in-depth experience. Not only will we be visiting a wealth of regional sites, we will also be creating fiber art pieces to interpret the landscape in our workshop. Each day will be filled with time to explore, absorb and create. We will visit local galleries and learn about the intricate pueblo pottery designs, and visit to the area rock art sites will be sure to inspire.
We will be delving into needle felted landscape “painting”, using colored fleece to create impressions of the region. I have taught this technique in many workshops, both regionally and nationally, as well as in Ireland. During two week long workshops at John Campbell Folk School in North Carolina, we explored a multitude of ways to work with fleece and create original designs. First, we discuss composition, color and size, and how to create the most compelling design. Students often use photographs or sketches of 
places we have visited as inspiration, composing from their “visual” notes. After laying the fleece on a pre-felt background, being careful to add enough layers, we begin felting. Layers and colors are built up and adjusted to create a background.
Then, once the student is satisfied with the layout, more details can be added. All of this is done with various sizes of needle felting tools, and truly, no experience is necessary to create a s
successful piece. We take tie to step back and discuss the progress, make adjustments and continue on. Felting this way is so satisfying and exciting! While 
landscapes are the focus, we leave plenty of time and opportunity for students to explore further, expand an idea, and go down a creative path.
We hope you can join us for our Santa Fe workshop in April. Art galleries, ancient petrolgyphs, weavers, mountains, desert and valleys, pueblos, and fine cuisine guaranteed! See all the details on out tour page about Santa Fe.
Authentic Travel and Tours, LLC 