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

This is an exploration of watercolor, mixed media/collage, painting with natural pigments, mark making with India ink + other simple materials to develop your unique voice - all while taking a deep dive into art, culture, and real ancestral traditions of Oaxaca, plus exploring a historic barrio in Puebla. First, a week-long deep dive into the art & culture of magical Oaxaca, with its soulful art scene, indigenous culture, rich culinary and artisanal traditions. Visit ancient ruins and artisan villages for weaving, papermaking, and red clay. Then, a weekend escape to Puebla for a vintage ephemera hunt in a picturesque alley, and collage sessions with our treasures in a beautiful 18th-C hotel in the heart of the old city center.
 
Location: Oaxaca & Puebla, Mexico
Instructor: Pedro Cruz Pacheco + Corrie McCluskey
Cost: $2750 (lodging included)
Sponsor: Talismán Oaxaca
Website, email, 707-529-9050

Need to feed your creative soul? Fill it to the brim with creative transformation and fresh inspiration. We'll mix art classes - watercolor, natural pigments, mixed media/collage and mask painting - with carefully curated field trips in magical Oaxaca. Experience the hauntingly beautiful, raucous celebration of Carnaval in the Zapotec pueblo of San Martín Tilcajete, where deeply rooted local culture and ancestral traditions are still practiced. We’ll see La Danza de Los Diablitos (Dance of the Devils), a Sunday market, studio visits to master alebrije & weaving families & papermaking studio, art center housed in a renovated textile factory, and a guided street art walk in a hip barrio - all mixed in with art instruction and creative play time.
 
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
Instructor: Pedro Cruz Pacheco + Corrie McCluskey
Cost: $2595 (lodging included)
Sponsor: Talismán Oaxaca
Website, email, 707-529-9050

Paint & Printmaking: explore intuitive mark-making and mono-printing using gel plates and acrylic paints. Create layers of vibrant papers for collages, books, or mixed media works. Stitch Exploration: Integrate hand-stitching techniques to embellish and transform painted surfaces. Use thread as a drawing tool and stitch as a narrative element. Bring together the elements you’ve created and collected—painted and stitched papers, handmade paper—into personal art books or create artwork that refers to the traditions we experience. Cultural Immersion: explore local markets, taste traditional foods, visit artisan studios, absorb the rhythms of daily life. Field trips include artisan studio visits with a master weaving family and a papermaker, Sunday market, women’s red clay collective, famous art center, and gallery walk.
 
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
Instructor: Lisa Pressman + Susan Stover
Cost: $3500 (lodging included)
Sponsor: Talismán Oaxaca
Website, email, 707-529-9050

Paper arts workshop focuses on mask making with "barro papel" (clay paper) and mixed media/collage incorporating paper ephemera. Handcraft a barro papel mask – a blend of paper pulp, clay, glue. Then, visual storytelling with mixed media collage, plus mark making experimentation to develop your unique visual voice when playing with handmade brushes and India ink. Create a simple artist book using exquisite handmade paper crafted by a master Oaxacan papermaker. Field trips include studio visits with a master weaving family and papermaker, a women’s red clay collective, guided street art tour, visit to a famous art center housed in a renovated textile factory, plus the renowned ancient tree of Tule – a mix of cultural immersion and creative playtime.
 
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
Instructor: Pedro Cruz Pacheco + Corrie McCluskey
Cost: $2595 (lodging included)
Sponsor: Talismán Oaxaca
Website, email, 707-529-9050