The Italy Workshop 2013

If you would like to live a more inspired and artful life by revitalizing that creative well that is deep within each of us – then this workshop is for you.

Join James Hajicek and Carol Panaro-Smith, along with Guest Artist Mary Kay Zeeb, for a ten-day workshop in the rural hills of Tuscany above the old Roman spa town of Bagni di Lucca. There is no better place to understand the art of living creatively than at Villa San Rocco, a 10-bedroom Baroque villa, with an adjoining late-medieval wing and adjacent chapel, situated at the top of Bennabio, a beautiful and secluded village in the Garfagnana region with a rich cultural history dating back to medieval times. The workshop involves experiences with photography, bookmaking/mixed media, creative writing, and yoga – all presented in an interdisciplinary approach that is aimed at integration and is appropriate to individuals at any level of previous experience. All this is combined with home-cooked Italian food that will be communally prepared and enjoyed amidst lively conversation at a communal table. The cost of the workshop is $2,975 and includes all workshop fees & materials, housing, meals, and local transportation. Airfare is not included. Limited to a maximum of 14 participants.

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 Instructor Bio’s

James Hajicek is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Art, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA from the University of New Mexico. His area of specialization is late 19th century photographic printing processes. His work has been exhibited internationally over the last thirty years and can be found in many significant private and public collections including the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France. He has received several National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships for his own photography and his work with obscure photographic printing processes. James loves riding his vintage Moto Guzzi motorcycle and intersecting with “anything Italian”.

Carol Panaro-Smith received her MFA at Arizona State University. Her area of specialization is alternative photographic processes, mixed media and book arts. She has held a number of positions both as an art instructor and administrator throughout the valley for over 30 years. Some highlights in her career include establishing Alchemy Studio, a working and teaching studio in Phoenix and her tenure as a founding member of the art school, Metro Arts. Her own work along with collaborative work with partner James Hajicek has been internationally recognized and collected. She is presently the program director and curator at Art Intersection. Her passion for cooking, traveling and art making are testimony to a life of interconnection.

Mary Kay Zeeb has been teaching for over twenty-three years. Her primary disciplines include writing, performance, and healing arts. She is a devout writer- poet, and her solo and collaborative performance work has been featured throughout the valley, including venues like Modified Arts, Eye Lounge, Mesa Arts Center, and Phoenix Art Museum. She earned her B.A. from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, in Oral Interpretation of Literature, and her M.A. in English, from DePaul University, Chicago.

For the past eight years, Mary Kay has been training in Kouk SunDo, a Taoist mind-body practice. She has studied with many Masters abroad, including the Ukraine and Korea.  During her morning meditations, Mary Kay often returns to the Korean retreat center near Mogoksa Zen Buddhist Temple: the grey blur of monks and umbrellas, morning forest fog, mountain rain, the movement of the river, then stillness…every breath, a careful birth.