Images from “Winter Seed’s Promise”

Our lodgings at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos. | There is no blue like New Mexico blue — the dazzling sky in winter-spring, and the magpies talking in their big nests in the cottonwood trees.

I have just returned from a week in Taos, New Mexico, where I taught “Winter Seed’s Promise.” The students collected seeds over the winter, and also on walks on the grounds where we all stay in Taos. The seeds became images of promise, possibility, fragility, curiosity, secrets, and time. Seeds were the inspiration for writing, drawing and painting from beginning students to professionals. There was an international atmosphere in our classroom with French, Italian, American and German students.

Below are lots of images inspired by seeds, and further down is the work with alphabet variations:

Magnolia seed pod | Watercolor & ink | © Gabriele Schilz

Seeds are an image for planting vision, longing, or a grain of hope:

I have a small grain of hope–
one small crystal that gleams
clear colors out of transparency.

I need more.

I break off a fragment
to send you.

Please take
this grain of a grain of hope
so that mine won't shrink.

Please share your fragment
so that yours will grow.

Only so, by division,
will hope increase,

like a clump of irises, which will cease to flower
unless you distribute
the clustered roots, unlikely source–
clumsy and earth-covered–
of grace. — Denise Levertov, For the New Year, 1981

Seeeds | Acrylic, ink & graphite | © Marcia Hocevar

Seeds | Watercolor & ink | © Paola Bernardi

Seeds | Acrylic & ink | © Gabriele Schilz

Seeds | Graphite & acrylic | © Katie Barnes

Seeds | Acrylic, ink & graphite | © Ann Langston

Seeds | Acrylic & ink | © Catherine Cooper

Seeds | Ink | © Ruth Gendler

Seeds | Ink & Graphite | © Cindy Parker

Seeds | Acrylic, ink, watercolor, graphite & collage | © Roz Barhaugh

Seeds | Acrylic, graphite & ink | © Michelle Morrissey

Below are two of the book covers:

Book covers | Gouache, watercolor & collage | © Hollis Sutherland (left) | © Jacqueline Muller (right)

For visual experiments in writing I handed out copies of William Moon’s “Moontype” alphabet. You can see an example in Hollis’s cover (above) and in the following work:

Variations on “Moontype” alphabet | White china marker, ink, acrylic | © Catherine Cooper (left)
| Acrylic & ink | © Paola Bernardi (right)

Alphabet variations | Acrylic & ink | © Cindy Parker (left) | © Jacqueline Muller (right)

Variations on “Moontype” alphabet | Graphite, ink & acrylic | © Cindy Parker (top) | Graphite & ink | © Hollis Sutherland (bottom)

Alphabet Variations | Gouache & watercolor | © Katie Barnes

A week retreat in Taos is difficult to describe, but I hope the work of the students gives you a feeling of the connection and atmosphere we have together in the classroom and around the dining table.

Many of you know my admiration for the poet and teacher, William Stafford. About his students he said: It is not my job to praise or blame, but in the end, to be envious of their work. I am. I am also gratified and fed by what happens. Thank you to all my students.

What seeds are you planting this spring? Either in your garden or your heart? I’d love to hear from you.