As many of you know, I’m a curator of a Hidden Monastery and love to support you in yours! I’m a student of the dance of life and studied theology and the arts in grad school. I am lucky that my day job is being an art based teacher, performer, author and speaker. I still consider my greatest achievement to be cofounding InterPlay, a decades old community improvisational movement and story-telling practice used around the world as a community building folk art, therapy, education, and spiritual practice.
I adore making altars, ritual play, humor, and theater. In my forties I assembled my first complex “shrine” to honor fairies. Then, in 2012, alongside my playmate Diane Storm I unexpectedly rented a tiny art studio at Redux, an art coop in the Bay Area. This was a social enterprise of St Vincent de Paul Thrift Stores and it offered a back room river of cast-off treasures that I began to upcycle into shrines and display in the front gallery. Here I was in my fifties and suddenly enamored with visual life. Bit by bit my shrine practice grew.
Last year I moved to Jingletown Art Studios where I curate a long wall of whimsical containers designed to uplift ordinary and sacred images. Things are happening!
I gleefully open my studio on Second Fridays including June 6th! 6-9 at 3001 Chapman Street Oakland. Derby is the cross street.
I have several pieces including my Doll House Shrine in Concord’s B8 Theater Gallery for their show The Doll House. I’ll be at the art reception Saturday June 16 after the matinee! Shows are June 7 – 23, 2018, 2292 Concord Blvd (@ Colfax), Concord, CA, a 5 minute walk from Concord BART / free parking at theater. I’m particularly excited because this production asks “How does a black woman find self-fulfillment in a country dominated by white men? This adaptation of Ibsen’s controversial classic sheds light on issues of racial equality and gender equity that continue to pervade our society today.
June 22 I will host a Shrine Workshop as part of my Hidden Monastery Retreat. If you are interested the program includes Friday 10:30-12 Body Meditation at InterPlayce Catered Lunch, Friday 2-6 Shrine Workshop: Jingletown Art Studio, Optional Dinner Out, Saturday 10-12:30 at InterPlayce Body Wisdom for Our Time: Sharing Practice, Lunch Out 12:30-2- 2-4:30 SpiritMarkings: Contemplative Art, Writing, Reflection, 5-6 Prayer Circle. Contact me if you are interested. You can select a Single Time on Friday Morning ($10-15) Fri Workshop $65 (includes materials) /Saturday only $95.
To see some of my shrines head over to that page or like Cynthia’s Jingletown Shrine Workshop on Facebook.
