Creative Inspiration

Toward the end of a weekend writing workshop at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, my fellow student Betsy announced that her birthday was the next day. In fact, she told us, the workshop had been a birthday gift to herself.

In honor of Betsy, our teacher, Portland poet Annie Callan, closed her eyes and recited from memory a lovely poem about the woods, “Lost,” by David Wagoner. Then another student, Alice, burst into Baudelaire, bestowing on Betsy a few lines from “La Foret.” The poems were appropriate: Our band of seven students and a teacher was, after all, nestled in the woods of Cascade Head, though within view and earshot of the ocean.
Betsy was moved by these simple offerings. As for me, I mentally noted what I want for my birthday.

What better gift to yourself than to be spiritually renewed and physically refreshed at an arts retreat? The restorative effects of unleashing creativity among kindred spirits in a peaceful environment are incalculable.

At Sitka Center and other arts retreats around Oregon, shared creativity is an enticing proposition that can take many forms. It can be experienced for a few hours or several days from a potpourri of workshop offerings: writing, painting, sculpting, bookmaking, literature study, photography and more. It can be on the shore of a clear lake in a glaciated valley (Fishtrap at Wallowa Lake), at the intersection of two mountain ranges (Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland) or overlooking the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean (Sitka Center near Lincoln City).

At an arts retreat the setting is just as important as the subject matter and the symphony of personalities in a class. The idea is to escape into nature, away from the stifling schedules of city life, and to unleash creativity. Any beautiful natural setting somehow eases me into my artistic self. Oregon’s greenery calms me and the cry of wild birds inspires me, but I can think of no place more conducive to my creativity than the Oregon Coast, where the ebb and flow of waves plays counterpoint to the ocean’s steady, dull roar.

For my Sitka weekend I chose lodging about 30 miles south, in Newport. I could have stayed closer to Sitka Center, but then I would have missed out on a drive along one of the most beautiful and accessible stretches of Oregon’s coastline, including the breathtaking ocean views from Yaquina Head.

On Friday night, before the workshop began, I stayed at Tyee Lodge oceanfront bed and breakfast. Inspired by the early significance of the area to Native Americans, innkeepers Mark and Cindy McConnell decorated the lodge with North Coast Indian art. They even designed and sandblasted a stylized Chinook salmon in the window separating the dining room from their office.
Our weekend workshop was held in Sitka Center’s library, the top floor of one of a cluster of storm-bleached wooden structures built on a hillside overlooking the ocean. The various studios and classrooms, bathed in natural light from ample windows and separated by inviting courtyards at different levels, hold equipment for the various artistic enterprises, such as printmaking, glass fusing, bookmaking and sculpture.

Many of the classes spill outdoors for inspiration. My classmates and I wandered the hilly trails and expansive lawn of the center’s grounds during our lunch hour, undisturbed by other artists working quietly in the studios. As class resumed, we returned to our seats around the large table in the library, where sunshine brightened the room and we were treated to a view of leafy branches nodding in the soft wind. Saturday’s six hours flew by as we discussed the theme and message of poems read by our teacher, an award-winning poet, essayist and novelist. Then we forged messages of our own in essays that we read aloud.

After class I drove straight to my next night’s lodging, which I knew would keep my creative mood alive. At the Sylvia Beach Hotel, each room is decorated in honor of a renowned writer. They include Agatha Christie, Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Allen Poe and even Dr. Seuss. My first-floor room was named for Sigrid Undset and decorated in Norway’s colors of white and blue for the author of Kristin Lavransdatter and winner of the 1928 Nobel Prize for Literature. As for the name of the hotel, it honors Sylvia Beach, who operated Shakespeare & Co., a Paris bookstore where writers of the 1920s and 1930s gathered.

It’s no illusion that the hotel’s third-floor library resembles the bookstore interior. For ease of comparison, several photographs of Shakespeare & Co. hang over the fireplace. Sure enough, the hotel library is also full of books and framed author photographs. The main difference, however, is that the hotel library has a marvelous view of the Pacific. A sign on the wall admonishes visitors to talk no louder than the roar of the ocean.
That evening, I went to a poetry reading put on by Writers on the Edge, a Newport literary arts organization that brings poets and authors to town for readings and holds occasional workshops, such as for hardcover bookmaking. Four women poets from around Oregon had come to Newport for the occasion and an eager audience filled the rows of pews in the Dogwood hall.

When our class met again Sunday morning, we were rested and ready to continue with conversation and artistic expression. Six hours later, we reluctantly capped our pens and closed our notebooks. Our creative weekend had come to an end.

The entire experience was to me cathartic, therapeutic and energizing. And now that I know how fantastic an artistic retreat feels to my body and soul, I want to do it again. My next birthday is already planned.