Willowtail intentionally invites in-depth ecological exploration by naturalists and creative practitioners.
The property provides studio residents with an immersive location for the integration of the environment and art.
In turn, residents share their work produced on-site with the community.
Watch our VIDEO
Testimonials
"Much of my life experience and writing have been intimately connected to specific places in the natural world. Willowtail's entire environment -- my encounters with deer and waterfowl and ancient trees -- connected me to the land in a way that proved especially productive.
The visibly caring staff and caretakers at Willowtail created the kind of welcoming environment that encouraged both of us to make the most of our working time. There was absolute respect for our privacy and our time there.
As a Mvskoke person, my blood memories are often enriched by time spent on and near water. I was able to find that connection to my own experience in ways that surprised and satisfied me. Willowtail led me easily into a creative mindset that energized my Indigenous purpose."
Michael Thompson, President of the Board of Directors, Writer 2020, Willowtail Resident
"Our Willowtail Art Residency was a lovely gift of time and space, in the Garden Cottage, the Studio and the entire environment. My relaxed and happy soul fueled creativity and energy.
With time to reflect, I found it healing to revisit and to begin to write about trauma that I had previously dismissed. Exploring different poetic devices challenged my usual writing style. It was rejuvenating to paint, and cut and glue down collages, as I had plenty of inspiration.
Really, I didn't realize how much I needed this residency until I was in the middle of it. This was the first artist residency I had ever taken. The self-care and focus on my art will surely help to free up a bit more of my confidence as an artist. "
Tina Deschenie, Poet and Artist 2020 Willowtail Resident
"As a lifelong lover of Nature, trained forester/entomologist, avid birder and devotee of the Arts, I see Willowtail Springs as important in myriad ways. Ecologically, its spring, umbilical to an invisible aquifer in the midst of an arid pinyon-juniper forest, breeds life. The structures and plantings exist in harmony with, and in some cases enhance, the native landscape. Perhaps its strongest asset in this age of increasing human disconnection from "wildness" and over-obsession with technology is its celebration of two things: our proper oneness with the environment and the resultant creativity that reunion ignites. Education, perhaps our species' most noble enterprise, is rampant at Willowtail Springs. The place, together with its creative owners and adoring visitors, deserves to reach its boundless potential."
David Leatherman, CO State Entomologist
Unlike other residencies, Willowtail is not about a place-name recognition, or personal Cloy résumé. It is about sharing the aesthetically abundant and rich life of Peggy and Lee.They generously hold the deep, vast, warm and wide open space and time for those most fortunate to work within their land and life-setting. Thank you so very much for this gift.
My own work needed a private boost of professionalism in a trusted space where I didn't have to explain and justify, over and over again, the worth of my work.
Willowtail Springs, the place, was patient with us. Its beauty and strength lingered beside us, just beyond our peripheral vision, just beyond our tasks-at-hand. The studio environment swelled the impact of the generosity we received. We were struck by the gentility of the internal heart-value which was organized around our work for us. Thank you for that, as well.
Sonja Horoshko, Artist and Writer 2020 Willowtail Resident
I have two bodies of work relevant to its southwest Colorado environment - an eleven-year series of large paintings of individual burned trees and a three-year series of artist books about bark beetles, using the wood and bark of their target trees as medium. Since these are preoccupations for much of the region, I found not only a personal welcome but professional interest in the work. Something I have experienced in every Willowtail residency is some surprise I could not have predicted. Two years ago, Willowtail received a Winifred Clive Johnson grant to foster a collaboration together with Durango author and wildland firefighter Lorena Williams.
Suze Woolf, Artist and 2019 Willowtail Resident