Need to feed your creative soul? Fill it to the brim with creative transformation and fresh inspiration. Revel in the Handmade: watercolor painting with Pedro – who incorporates personal symbols, talismans, Oaxacan culture and the natural world into his work – and mixed media/collage and experimenting with mark making with Corrie to develop your unique visual voice. Plus: a hands-on full day of pure alchemy, making your own watercolor paint with natural pigments with our guest art instructor Indiana Christov. Our field trips include the Sunday market, a studio visit with a master papermaker, a women’s red clay collective, a famous art center housed in a renovated textile factory – all mixed in with art instruction and creative play time.
 
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
Instructor: Pedro Cruz Pacheco + Corrie McCluskey
Cost: $2650 (lodging included)
Sponsor: Talismán Oaxaca / Oaxaca Dreams
Website, email, 707-529-9050

Experience an unforgettable celebration of Día de Muertos in magical Oaxaca, with stunningly decorated altars, street parades, vibrant music, costumed revelers, all-night vigils in cemeteries, marigold flowers, copal incense, dazzling murals throughout the city. Watercolor class: we’ll paint imagery and symbolic representations of our loved ones to honor their memories, assemble a beautiful group altar and build a tapete de arena (sand tapestry). Field trips: to a mercado to shop for altar decorations and offerings, visits to 2 cemeteries where Oaxaqueños lovingly decorate the graves of their ancestors and bring offerings to share with their spirits, and master artisan studios including tapetes (woven wool rugs), alebrijes (carved wooden objects), and the Mujeres del Barro Rojo (Women of the Red Clay).
 
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
Instructor: Pedro Cruz Pacheco + Corrie McCluskey
Cost: $2795 (lodging included)
Sponsor: Talismán Oaxaca/Oaxaca Dreams
Website, email, 707-529-9050