I like to push the ‘refresh’ button at the dawn of a new year. To summon up all my courage to reveal new ways in which to see myself. To let go of old perceptions I have collected the year before, of who I am, what I can do, and how I look like. To dare to look at my face and see it and what's behind it with marvelous and marveled eyes. I gather my personal images and my intimate oddments in a physical book, I call it my visual journal. I don’t journal to make beautiful pictures of me, but to support my spiritual growth spurts. However, I have to face it, even if I set out to paint Frida Kahlo in my journal, it would be about me, and I am adjusted to beauty in every possible way. When I look at me, closely and openly, I like to see myself as a mysterious, intricate, vulnerable, conflicted, imperfect, simple, yet magnificent creature. I like to learn to look at my face and the faces of others with ease and comfort, with awe and wonderment.

Do you?

Five unobstructed days at the Hacienda will facilitate these sentiments. 'My Face Book' will allow for the ultimate exposure of a personal and expressive art journaling process. It is ideal for those of you who are enlivened by the thought of experimenting with multiple media and boundless art making techniques in an invigorating yet idyllic setting. The magnificence of the hacienda and its surroundings will offer you, foremost newness, intimacy, and tranquility, an environment conducive to liberty of self-expression and openness. I am excitedly awaiting the event as it holds the promise for a rich, colorful, and joyous experience.

So let's deeply breathe in, so we can then fully breathe out all the beauty that is patiently waiting to unite with the beauty that is abundant and easily accessible all around us. Day by day we'll explore and portray more and more faces through multiple avenues!

We'll find the clearest form of identity through the depiction of faces; our own, of others' that you may know already, of others' that you just met, and the faces of complete strangers. We will not be doing so by following sets of drawing rules and painting guidelines. We will not be looking for precision, accuracy, or resemblance. We will not strive to achieve realistic images, nor be engaged in the creating of stress generating 'stylized' and 'artistic' images. We will reject conventionality in favor of sincerity and originality and focus on simple and unidealized treatment of our subjects.

What we will do is focus and rely solely on the present moment to observe, look, see, explore, experiment, learn, imagine, experience, connect, feel, touch, discover, unravel, provoke, evoke, collage, peel, paint, draw, sketch, doodle, write, tear, glue, smudge, smear, scratch, color, texturize, layer, and mostly, to splendiferously EXPRESS! We will fill up pages upon pages to reveal our rich, real, honest, fun, odd, unexpected, entertaining yet moving face book.

Each face we will encounter, including our own, at any given moment, will represent a part of us unknown to us until that moment.

Supply list:

• A large (~8.5”X11”) blank journal with absorbent paper, (no loose papers please)
• A small (~5.5"x8") blank hardcover sketch book
• Misc. basic painting art supplies: a container for water, paper towels, plastic plate (to use as a paint palette), etc.
• Acrylic paints- favorite brand and colors (~8)
• Paint brushes, a few sizes, from wide to thin
• Watercolor soluble color pencils (+sharpener)
• Portfolio watercolor soluble pastels
• 1-2 mechanical Pencils with erasers
• Scissors
• White Gesso
• Black Gesso (or black Acrylic paint)
• Matte medium (Liquitex or Golden)
• Gel medium (Liquitex or Golden)
• 2-3 Large glue sticks
• Masking tape, Beige, black (decorative tapes optional)
• Hand mirror (large enough for you to see your face in)
• Prang watercolor set
• Niji water-brush
• White gel pens, (by Signo or Sakura)
• Black and other color gel pens,
• Other favorite pens, markers, (Sharpies, Micron, etc.)
• Matte Varnish (Liquitex or Golden)
• A few various sizes of B&W photographs of your face.
• Any materials or colorants that you just can't journal without.

For information and reservations
contact Sam @