I had the priviledge of a timeless hour of beauty chanting in a workshop led by Alana Lea and David Embry at the Vancouver ChantFest 2007. Seated in the apse of a church with coloured light filtering down on the thirty-some people seated in a circle, Alana led us with song and drumming on her tar frame-drum, David with song and his harmonium, Peter with his tambour.
In the many-hued half-light, the drone and rhythms mixed with the hum of voices and the pulse of hearts. We chanted in Sanskrit, Arabic, Aramaic and English, following Alana's confident, beautiful voice and spirit, as she, alternating with David, led us into unknown realms of sound and meaning. Commanding such diverse linguistic and melodic fields, she led us so effortlessly, like a high-vibration midwife, so that within the blink of an eye, each person found ourselves as if no longer strangers in new lands; each found a note from where our own spirits could ring strong and co-create the unison that rose above time, allowing us to steep ourselves in the experience of timelessness -- for that short, poignant, deep and beautiful while. Thank you, Alana. I want to chant and study with you.
Astri Wright
Professor, South and Southeast Asian Art History
University of Victoria, B.C., Canada
ARTIST STATEMENT
Being a Sacred Artist isn't as simple as it used to be. Once upon a time, I'm certain I lived on the Isle of Iona, silently devoted to illuminating manuscripts with luminous flowers in the borders. There may well have been other lifetimes in Tibet, painting tankas, chanting in the temple, sacred dancing in the courtyard. Later, I'm sure I whirled with the Beloved in Persia, that more Love would rain upon the earth. Surely some of those miniatures that thrill me still, first revealed themselves under a brush held then. Other lives were devoted to dancing for rain, or healing, or whatever the village of my North American people needed most...
EXPERIENCE & REFERENCES
In 1985 I began leading Dances of Universal Peace as a means of offering experiences of Unity to diverse groups of people including: the Oregon Multicultural Education Association, Oregon School for the Deaf, Linfield College, the Earth Spirit Council, the Findhorn Foundation, the Columbia River Correctional Institution, St. Mark's Cathedral, the Living Enrichment Center and the National Conference for Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution. I was a member of the Mentor Teachers Guild for PeaceWorks International Center for the Dances of Universal Peace, and a presenter of Peace Through Art exhibits and events, in association with Shalem Center in Columbus, Ohio. References for this work as it evolved over more than 20 years are beneath the link.
My botanical watercolors and digital collages have been exhibited at the Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Institution's Arts and Industries Building and the Museum of Natural History Gift Shop.
But what's a woman to do with all of this in the 21st century? Born in Brazil, to a multilingual translator and an engineer, having made my home around the globe, I find my deepest pleasure is disappearing into silence with those who consciously participate in Creation. So, the only answer was to become a door, open for others to make passage to these mysterious places through the arts of sacred song, dance and illustration.
Digital collages have been exhibited as fabric fine art banners at the Peace Alliance Conferences at the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel and Reagan Center in Washington, D.C., and the Westin Arlington Gateway in Arlington, Virginia; Rumi Society public events at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Public Library; the 'Celebration of Oneness' at the Pasadena Convention center in California; a synagogue in Rosh-Pina, northern Israel and public events in Sao Paulo, Brazil to commemorate the International Day of Peace.
The words Illuminated Peace arrived when I began to make digital collages at the turn of the century, inspired by the translations of Middle Eastern sacred texts by my Sufi teacher. That was the result of an imperative to produce some visual form of the energy that was moving inside of me, while my drawing hand was recovering from an injury. While unlikely for the organic identity I held onto, the computer soon became my favored media for the ability to meld so many varied aspects of my life. That's what it's all about really: releasing judgements, integration, synthesis, unity, unconditional peace and love.
Those illuminations grew from a series on the Aramaic Prayers of Jesus, to include the various spiritual paths and teachers I'd encountered over twenty years as a sacred dancer. They made their way from computer screen images that thousands of people around the planet still download on this Peace Through Art website, to fabric banners that travel to interFaith and Peace events around the globe. In the 2009 traveling exhibit experience When 'I' and 'You' Vanish, viewers not only see, but hear the songs, the prayers, and are invited into dance circles, to vanish with me.
“Affirm Unity” banner at a Peace Alliance Conference
When 'I' and 'You' Vanish
"I" and "you" focus light
like decorative holes cut
in a lamp shade.
But there is only One Light
"I" and "you" throw a
thin veil between
heaven and earth.
Lift the veil and all
creeds and theologies disappear.
When "I" and "you" vanish,
how can I tell whether I am
in a mosque, a synagogue,
a church, or an observatory?
The fabric banners have also been shown at the Imagine Peace Festival in Amenia, New York; the Rachel Corrie Foundation Peaceworks Conference in Olympia, Washington; a Holly Near Peace Concert and the Spiritual Activism Conference in Seattle, Washington; the second People's Summit for Departments of Peace in Victoria and the World Peace Forum in Vancouver, British Columbia.
In early 2009 I brought When 'I' and 'You' Vanish to Brazil, at the invitation of several different sacred dance circles in Rio de Janeiro, united, with partial sponsorship by the Oneness Foundation.
“The transmission and wisdom of cultures through their sacred music and dances grants us access to who we were and what we may yet become. They have opened the door to the holy and thus rendered us whole; they have given us the deepest culture of once and future times; thy have brought us home to who and what we are.”
~Dr, Jean Houston
Author, Research Psychologist, Philosopher
Special Advisor to the United Nations
“Your songs and dances offer a spectrum of cultural nurturing and healing...”
~Michael Perry
Director of Activities for Columbia River Correctional Institution
“You did what I hoped for - helped people express and experience in a whole way their spirituality and their longings for Peace and Community. You had true authority for your gift of drawing people in - or perhaps calling them out. I felt your dignity and simplicity and your great gift for teaching. I hope more churches, schools and learning centers will use your gifts, for there is healing and peace in what you enable people to experience.”
~Jean Haldane
Chair for “Masks of God” at St. Mark's Cathedral
If you would like to sponsor an exhibit experience for a conference or retreat in your location, please email with a descriptive Subject line (so that I can see it's a request for attention on a real matter!) for a personal response.
