2008 Programs

Cooking with Daisy, August 18 - 22

Sea Kayaking, August 24 - 28

Mindfulness Stress Reduction, September 7 - 12

Whitehead Light Station Portfolio: A Photography Workshop, September 19 - 21

Painting with Spirit, September 26 - 28

Cooking with Daisy
August 18-22, $2400 per person (double occupancy)
Instructor: Chef Daisy Martinez

Daisy Martinez, author of the popular cookbook Daisy Cooks! and host of the PBS television show of the same name, is offering a five-day culinary flight, enjoying flavors and techniques used in the cooking of Latin America, Italy and France. Daisy will walk you through basic culinary skills, knife knowledge, and kitchen sanitation.  Each morning the class will work with Daisy to prepare a delicious lunch that the class will enjoy together.  Afternoons will provide unstructured time for rest and relaxation, during which Daisy will be available for informal discussions and for excursions in the Light Stations boats (weather permitting) and other activities.  Evenings will include dinner with Daisy and further discussions.

Chef Daisy Martinez
Daisy Maria Martinez was born to mainland Puerto Rican parents in Brooklyn, New York, where she lived at her grandmother’s house until she was almost five years old.  Between her grandmother, Valentina, and her mother, Conchita, Daisy learned that the kitchen is the happiest room in the household, filled with love, family, and delicious food. With an extended family of relatives from Central America, Spain, and other parts of the Spanish-speaking world, Daisy also grew up appreciating the diversity of Latin cuisine.
In 1998 Daisy matriculated at the French Culinary Institute, where she won first prize for her final project, “The Passionate Palate.”  Shortly after graduation, Daisy worked on the set of PBS’ Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen as a prep-kitchen chef, and for three years as a private chef in New York City.  In addition, Daisy managed a small catering business, The Passionate Palate, which she continues to operate.

Sea Kayaking
August 24-28, $900 per person (double occupancy)
Instructor: Mitch Mitchell

Painting With Spirit
September 26-28, $1500 per person (double occupancy)
Instructor: Brady Nickerson
Program limited to twelve participants

“Painting with Spirit,” is an innovative and original approach to personal and spontaneous self-expression, inner adventure and discovery through the use of color and design. This form of painting focuses on the “process” rather than the product or end result without criticism or judgment. It is an exercise in letting go, allowing you to trust and to feel while you paint.  You are encouraged to use intuition and spontaneity to explore the depths of imagination and creativity. The “process” is an internal unfolding that permits you to explore and discover new and surprising elements of yourself. This joyful and meaningful experience creates an awareness that positively affects every other part of your life.  People of all ages and backgrounds have benefited from Process Painting. No prior experience is necessary.

Brady Nickerson
Brady Nickerson is a passionate and enthusiastic artist and art educator who has always believed strongly in the transforming power of art. She has twenty years experience teaching art in various forms to people of all ages. Brady is the founder of “Painting with Spirit,” an innovative and original art program. She has traveled extensively leading workshops at conferences, schools, social agencies, and businesses throughout New England, and she has been the Artist in Residence in over fifteen different schools in Maine. Brady was also the Artist in Residence for 9 years at Long Creek Youth Development Center.

Brady was the recipient of the third Annual Arthur Hall Award in 2006, an award honoring the work of a Maine artist, who by their artistry and commitment to work in the community have enriched and transformed the lives of others and created positive change. Brady is herself an abstract and watercolor artist and has shown her work widely in Maine. She teaches and paints in her studio in Edgecomb, Maine.

Whitehead Light Station Portfolio: A Photography Workshop 
September 19-21, $1500 per person (double occupancy)
Instructor: William Abranowicz

The Whitehead Light Station is a magical place.  Edward Hopper, Elliot Porter, Johannes Vermeer and Andrew Wyeth would probably have been very happy to paint or photograph it.  The quality of light, the sea, the varied landscape, and the vernacular architecture are among the most beautiful on the East Coast and make for a rich visual feast. The idea of this workshop is that you are to cover this historic Maine island lighthouse as a travel assignment.  You should think of yourself as a photojournalist, landing in a new place and charged with giving shape to a story regardless of conditions and on a deadline.  Fortunately the conditions at the Whitehead Light Station are perfect for a workshop on travel photography!

We will begin with an initial review of students’ work (prints or digital files) and then explore and photograph the island together and individually.  We will examine all of the components of a complete travel story—architecture, landscapes, portraits, food, service, and lifestyle.  We will keep in mind an editor’s parameters and break some rules to get what might not have been expected.  Each day we will review images on Mac computers assisted by a digital technician.

Topics we will cover include the pragmatic and the aesthetic.   We will do the initial survey of the location and our equipment, discuss scheduling and timing, and most importantly, pay attention to looking, seeing and reacting to our subject.   We will consider various methods of working - spontaneous reactions as well as with arranged, formalistic approaches.  Image exposure, editing and presentation will also be covered.  Arnold Newman, the famed portrait photographer said, “Students of photography should know about the history of photography so they don’t have to re-invent the wheel.”  With that in mind, we will make many references to photographic history. At the end of the workshop, students will leave with body of work that is a highly personal portfolio and a complete story.

This class is limited to intermediate and advanced students.  A portfolio review is required, as is a manually controlled digital camera and a tripod.  Students should bring their portfolio to the workshop.  An additional list of materials needed will be provided prior to your arrival on Whitehead.

William Abranowicz
William Abranowicz has been a photographer for 35 years, and a contributing photographer for the Conde Nast Traveler for almost 20.  He is the author of The Greek File: Images from a Mythic Land (Rizzoli 2001) and the soon to be published Hellas, his first collection of color images of Greece with an introduction by Louis DeBernieres. 

His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, Town and Country, Elle Décor as well as numerous international publications.   His clients include Banana Republic, Target, Merrill Lynch, Ralph Lauren and IBM.   He has had solo exhibitions at Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York, The Photographer’s Gallery in Los Angeles and Afterimage in Dallas.  His photographs are in public, private and corporate collections throughout the world. He is represented by Art and Commerce. 

Mindfulness Stress Reduction
September 7-12, $2400 per person (double occupancy)
Instructor: Reverend Dr. Robert Cox

Mindfulness Stress Reduction (MSR) is a rigorous and systematic training in mindfulness, a form of meditation originally developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979 at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.  Thousands of people throughout the United States and around the world have benefited from this well-established program that can be practically integrated into everyday life to enable one to more easily manage stress, pain, illness, and the challenges inherent in everyday, modern life.  Participants can expect to develop a personal program that can have profound mental and psychological benefits and will promote a way of life that reveals the gentle and loving wholeness that lies at the heart of our being, even in times of pain, suffering, and difficulty.  The training in mindfulness aims to develop an in-depth skill in moment-by-moment awareness that becomes the platform for embarking on a journey of self-development, self-discovery, learning, and healing.

The MSR program can be challenging, and participants should expect to expend considerable energy in their efforts to mobilize their inner capacity for growth and healing and for taking charge of their lives in a way they may not have before taking the course.  The benefits of MSR are lasting and in many cases bring about significant transformations in participants’ relationships with their bodies and minds.  The atmosphere of the MSR program will be one of support, wisdom, and compassion.  Ample opportunity will be given to enjoy the peaceful and beautiful surroundings of the Whitehead Light Station.

If you would like more information about MSR, you may want to read the first part of Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Full Catastrophe Living and Saki Satorelli’s Heal Thy Self.  If you wish to apply for the MSR program at Whitehead Light Station, you will be asked to provide a brief statement about yourself, your reasons for wanting to enroll, and any concerns you might have in taking this course.   All participants will be screened by the instructor before being accepted. 

The Rev. Dr. Robert Cox
Originally trained as a neurophysiologist, Dr. Cox received ministerial training and then completed his doctoral work in psychology.   Wearing “three hats,” he brings a breadth of understanding and sensitivity to his work, naturally integrating concern for body, mind, and spirit.  In an intentional collaborative relationship, Dr. Cox works with persons to accept pleasure and pain, fear and joy, and all aspects of life with increasing equanimity and balance, encouraging active participation of persons in their own adaptation and change.  He is an experienced, ethical, and humane practitioner, licensed as a psychologist and an accredited Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors.  He maintains a private practice as a psychologist in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and offers MSR programs.  He originally trained in Mindfulness Stress Reduction at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and has also developed skills in offering Mindfulness-based, Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Relapse Prevention of Depression, as well as skills in offering Interpersonal Mindful ness programs of training.  Dr. Cox is a longtime practitioner of mindfulness, having developed a consistent practice to cope with chronic pain.