Hosted by Open Workshops

This all-inclusive two and a half day creative workshop takes place at Jackrabbit Studios in the beautiful Mojave Desert north of Joshua Tree National Park. Throughout this immersive weekend artist, educator, and designer Nicola Vruwink will share her knowledge of hand-building, craft, and design as you create multi-media sculpture and assemblages inspired by story. In between creative projects, stimulating conversations, and healthy meals, enjoy time to just relax and soak in the natural desert beauty on this historic 5 acre parcel.

Following in the footsteps of Larry Smith's Six-Word Memoirs project, together we will explore language and material to bring words into form. Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” In this workshop you will play, explore, and write your own short story. Beginning with a wide lens, we’ll focus and funnel down to compose individual six-word memoirs to shape into physical three dimensional or ephemeral form. We'll craft mobiles and tabletop sculptures through various media and processes. We’ll experiment in writing, explore a host of materials, visit spaces of inspiration, workshop ideas, and compose individual narratives expressed creatively, unexpectedly, and uniquely.

The emphasis will be on play, process, and investigation. Exercises that scaffold, support, and challenge you will be introduced as you find your story line, build camaraderie, and let go of expectations.

We’ll open our creative minds with a visit to the infamous Sky Village Swap Meet in Yucca Valley. There we’ll hunt for objects–a pair of old glasses, a crystal champagne flute, or broken tennis racquet–that conjure past hopes and dreams to channel into six-word fictional narratives. We’ll also collect items for possible use in our own memoirs back at the studio. During the workshop you’ll be introduced to various multi-media techniques and methods to express your story in two or three dimensions including mobile building, wire wrapping, fastening, assemblage, sewing, and watercolor. On the final day, you’ll present your six-word memoir to the group. This may be composed from found objects, paint, paper, textile, or maybe even written in the sand, danced, or spoken/sung aloud in the voice and style you see fit.

Special Guest Singer/Songwriter Wildlife Freeway will join us Saturday night to perform and share insights into her creative practice.

We hope you will join us in this adventure in which the unexpected will be discovered, assumptions will dissolve, and explorations will be revelatory.

Optional Museum Visit: For those interested in additional inspiration before the workshop begins, we’ll organize a visit to the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum to experience the immersive large-scale sculpture by Noah Purifoy who dedicated himself to the found object and to using art as a tool for social change.

2.5 Day Workshop (instructors, lunch and dinner, and materials included but feel free to bring your own materials or objects as well!)
$450 Early Bird
$495 After January 21, 2024

Overnight lodging is available on site ranging from $50 to to pitch your own tent to a king suite with private bath. See photos below. Details and pricing can be found on the registration page. Space is limited!

Limited to 12 participants, with a minimum of 6.

This adult workshop is open to everyone, no experience is required and experimentation is encouraged! 

About Nicola Vruwink

Nicola Vruwink, MFA, is an artist, educator, and designer committed to mentoring future creatives while maintaining her own studio practice. She has found her home in the California community college system, where she is a full-time faculty member in the Graphic Design program at Santa Monica College. She is also serves as assistant faculty at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA where she teaches ceramics. Language often plays a starring role in her studio practice as seen in her ongoing crocheted cassette tape wall hangings and recent four letter word ceramic series.

Originally from Iowa, Nicola received her MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle and studied in the MFA program at the University of Iowa. She lives in Los Angeles and maintains a studio in Landers, CA where she also founded and curates exhibitions in Goat Gallery. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at the Palm Springs Museum of Art, the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, Michigan, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, with solo exhibitions presented by the Lancaster Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Bellevue Art Museum, and Riverside Art Museum. Her works are held in the collections of the Palm Springs Art Museum and Seattle Art Museum, among other public and private collections and has been reviewed in the Los Angeles Times, Artforum, Huffington Post, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Angeleno Magazine.

High Desert singer/songwriter Sunny Atema who performs as Wildlife Freeway will join us Saturday night under the stars to share insights into her creative process and perform a few of her favorite songs.