Shrine Workshop
I studied theology and the arts in grad school. I love ritual play, humor, theater, shrines, and altars.
In my forties, I assembled my first complex “shrine” to honor fairies. In 2012, invited to co-rent a tiny studio in an art coop in Alameda called Redux, a social enterprise of St Vincent de Paul Thrift Stores, I fell into a river of cast-off treasures. I began upcycling the materials into art that got displayed in the front gallery.
When I was young, it crossed my mind that I could be a visual artist, but I decided to focus on dance and performance.
Then, in my fifties, my visual imagination exploded. What joy to leave words behind and think through symbols, images, lines, and color! To fall in love with a space the size of a box! Decadently enamored with visual life, bit by bit, my shrine practice grew.
Redux closed, and I moved to Jingletown Art Studios, where I curated a long wall of whimsical containers that uplifted ordinary and sacred images that I gleefully shared on Second Fridays.
In 2020 during the Pandemic, I moved to Fair Oaks Ecohousing near Sacramento. Two side-by-side therapy offices across the street became available, and my shrine workshop found a new home.
Is there is someone or something you want to enshrine? I sell, receive commissions, and welcome donations. I also loan my shrines. See more about my work at the online Hidden Monastery, cynthiawinton-henry.com, on Facebook at Cynthia’s Shrine Workshop, and InterPlay.org.
