NY Woodlanders Gathering
2010 New York Gathering
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From Riva Weinstein
On Saturday I spent the day outdoors making things. A simple sentence, a simple notion, a watershed experience.
How often do we spend an entire day at the computer? And how do we feel afterwards? Inspired? Dreamy? Full of new ideas? Hardly. But spend a day outdoors and something catches fire in your heart, your mind, your spirit.
There was nothing fancy about the Woodlanders Gathering in Warwick New York this weekend. But everything imaginal and wonderous. Rustic makers of furniture and art, curious creative souls who shared ideas and materials under two tents at a camp site on the grounds of the Warwick Conference Center. It was the middle of the woods, and the heart of the world. A campfire, a tarp filled with goodies for swapping: books, branches, bones. For natural material enthusiasts, it was a candy store for heart and mind. And so much more.
Dan Mack is the founder and fire behind the Woodlanders Gathering, now in its 18th and 19th years in the Midwest and here on the East Coast. His imaginal wood carvings from found Hudson River driftwood, furniture building expertise and generous spirit of sharing, have created an event that is as much, if not more, about community as it is about being introduced to new skills and ideas. It’s radical in gentler way than Burning Man. Complete with its own Wicker Man.
I’d been lurking on the virtual site for years and finally found myself there in body. I reconnected with Lynn Hoins a poet I’d met some years ago at a workshop I gave on making time for art. Lynn opened up worlds about journal writing for writers and non-writers alike, in the space of a short hour.
Others showed us how to make Maori healing tools and systrums (an ancient egyptian rattle form). Dan’s driftwood was on hand with small carving knives, as were boxes of blank cards and Stanley tool boxes full of small nature finds from which one could begin to make personal Tarot.
There was a flute making workshop and mead-making botanical walk.
But mostly there was an atmosphere of love. Of earth and art, of people and process.
Lynn Hoins put it beautifully when she said: “It’s like finding your tribe.”
The Woodlander’s Gathering is on my calendar for next year, but for the whole weekend next year, camping gear and all.
