FIG Retreat

We are spending the first year with the Desert Dairy healing it, trying to understand the land and the town, experiencing the crazy weather, and enjoying most of each day we are here (yes, there are moments of despair, too). We are not making much art yet, but that will change when the barn is in better shape.

We are also testing the idea of running a residency by inviting groups of friends/guinea pigs out for retreats, in which we organize artist workshops, cook together, and do some art tourism. Our first retreat was in January, with members of the Feminist Image Group, an artist support group I founded ten years ago in San Diego. Although we have about 60 members now, about eight hardy souls agreed to come out to 29 Palms to celebrate our anniversary, and the fact that I'm passing on the leadership reins to others. 

I asked my friends to lead workshops, as so we made prayer flags, feminist timelines, and had an intense writing session based on childhood memories. The women also helped make our earth oven, and had a cleanup party in our oasis. We made paella, sat around a bonfire and the wood burning stove, and went into town to the Noah Purifoy museum and the new Yucca Arts Center (driving in a rainstorm with threats of flash flooding!). 

My biggest takeaway... we need another bathroom. But that's a pipe dream right now. All the other rooms functioned pretty well even thought it was very cold! And guests loved the patio, the oasis and the dune. Since then we've had several other guests come out, and one said to us, "I should head out, but I just don't want to." Now, that's what I like to hear.