Intimate Visual Journaling in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Post by Rebecca Brooks.

come away with me

High in the Sierra Madre Mountains in the state of Guanajuato waits the 400 year old colonial town of San Miguel de Allende.  You will find rich traditions where old and contemporary converge to inspire with its abundant offering of art, culture and charm.  San Miguel sits on a hillside, with inspiring vistas and glorious architecture.  Declared by UNESCO as a world heritage site, San Miguel de Allende is a bustling colonial community with a welcoming climate and elevation of 6,300 ft.  Visitors are greeted with blooming flowers, blue skies, cobblestone streets, colonial architecture, gourmet restaurants,  inspiration for all your senses around every corner.

Our time together will be filled with meaningful friendship, day excursions into the heart of this beautiful country and the luxury of sharing an intimate sojourn creating under the inspirational wings of the visionary Orly Avineri.

“Practices of intimate visual-journaling and alternative book-making cultivate insight into the nature of the creative process and its multiple relations to emotional stories of loss and mend. Enriched by self trust and acceptance, images, photos, paper, paint, words, pen, line, thread, rust, and many unconventional tools and materials entwine to make expressive, complex and extremely personal books. It’s all about one’s willingness to reveal vulnerability and rawness for the sake of true creative freedom, newness, and a deep sense of interconnectedness to all. Experiencing honest and joyous journeys takes precedence over producing beautiful outcomes. Ultimately, this process is about depicting the fluidity of life, about effortlessly carrying one’s self from one place to another and about connecting to a larger world than our own.”

We arrive Nov. 10 and begin our time together with a traditional fiesta under the stars. This evening will set the tone for the many heart warming adventures we will share. We will draw inspiration from the heart and soul that are always waiting open armed in San Miguel de Allende. Life itself will be the underpinning for our creative journey. Together we will soak in all the colours, textures and traditions this city and her people have to offer. Bearing witness to the beauty of living in the lush present moment-our time together will flourish as life will in person; in the rich care and respect of each other.

Our home will be the beautiful Casa Carmen, only two short blocks from the Jardin, the heartbeat of San Miguel.  We will be enjoying delicious cooked to order breakfasts and lunches served family style; our evenings will be free to adventure on our own or together. Orly will be leading us in 5 full days of visual journaling, with inspirational excursions intermixed.

Orly Avineri

 I truly believe that the need to be witnessed by the self and by others is a human-core-need to be fulfilled by the act of creating. Therefore, a compelling part of my journey is the teaching of art making and visual journaling. As a young adult in Israel, I had studied Fine Arts in an artists’ village nestled at the foot of Mount Carmel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, and later, in the Netherlands, Graphic Design at the University of Arts in the contemporary yet history-drenched city of Utrecht. Now living by the beach of Southern California with my family, I take in all the magnificence of the landscapes that shaped me and of the visual languages I have acquired along the way. I keep an online visual journal titled One Artist Journal that is derived from my actual physical journal pages. It is now available in a published book form, carrying the same title. After One Artist Journal came 14 Artist Journals, my second book, depicting the journaling worlds of 14 magnificent individuals. After 14 Artist Journals came my third, titled IN MY BONES: A Visual Journal, continuing where One Artist Journal left off. I am very passionate about finding meaning and connection through the process of visual journaling.

https://www.facebook.com/orly.avineri

 …your family is your entire village

with all its inhabitants, living or dead.

your relatives aren’t only human.

your family also speaks to you in the crackling of the fire,

in the murmur of the running water,

in the breathing of the forest,

in the voices of the wind,

in the fury of the thunder,

in the rain that kisses you

and in the birdsong that greats your footsteps.

 -eduardo galeano

 we hope this will be your year to come away with us.

 love,

orly and rebecca

please email rebecca at

recuerda_mi_corazon@yahoo.com

to join us.