I know I’m not alone in feeling more creative and inspired when I get away. New places, new experiences make people see things differently. To think, feel and dream more. To quiet down and listen. Take me to a cabin in the woods, and after a couple days, my slower, more reflective self kicks in. Poetry, knitting, cooking, writing, building stuff with my kids from sticks. It’s the reason writers buy shacks in remote coastal towns, and artists create colonies in the country.
Most writers, painters, knitters, builders, bakers and craft-makers I know can’t afford their own creative refuges. So they seek quiet and solace and beauty where they can find it. Recently, I’ve been inspired by all the different types of creative retreats and residencies, art camps and travel workshops, from the extravagant SquamItalia to the humble and rustic, but no less impressive, Cabin-Time. So begins a new series: creative retreats.
Cabin-Time–”a roaming creative residency to remote places”–spent their third residency on the beautifully wild and rugged Rabbit Island, a remote 91-acre island off Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula in Lake Superior. In addition to chopping wood, setting up camp and cooking meals over the fire, they managed to find time to make all kinds of site-specific art, like a series of vinyl-cut prints that represent the last harvest of blueberries or the perfectly simple weather rock. Photos below, plus this awesome 12-minute mini documentary.
11 October 2012 | nicole haley Said:
Can’t wait to read more about creative retreats here! Your mere mention of Cabin-Time sent me on a spiraling hunt through the internets!
17 October 2012 | Meghan Said:
Yes, I totally agree: Cabin-Time is awesome. I wish I would have made it to the post-retreat exhibit.
18 October 2012 | Shelley Said:
This post is featured in AFAR’s What We’re Reading weekly round-up today!
http://www.afar.com/afar/what-were-reading–24
18 October 2012 | Meghan Said:
Thanks for the heads-up — and thanks to Davina for including me!
17 February 2013 | Teresa Said:
How wonderful! I have the same attraction to old world charm when I am traveling abroad. The cave dwellings in Granada, Spain are pretty unique. Ever stayed in a tree house?
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