Read About Our Inspirational Discovery!
During the curatorial process for The Healing Power of ART & ARTISTS “The Spirit of Resilience” online exhibition we discovered a few of the artists selected for the exhibition who also generously devote their time to helping others. You will meet them in this article “Artists from The Spirit of Resilience Exhibition Who Are World Changers”. We share their winning art, their statements, and more about how they are changing the world.
This article is part of a series on The Healing Power of ART & ARTISTS website titled “World Changers”.
Laurie Marshall
Laurie Marshall’s painting “Restorative Justice Singing Tree”, shown above, was selected for The Spirit of Resilience” exhibition. It is acrylic on wood, and colored pencil on paper, 8 feet x 16 feet. About this entry she wrote, “Resilience depends on creating ‘The Beloved Community’, which includes all the beings on our planet and the elements that support life – earth, air, fire and water. This piece was a collective effort which I facilitated. 15 immigrant youth helped design and paint this image portraying Restorative Justice, the four elements, and celebrating Oakland, California.”
Laurie has created murals and dramas with children in public, private and alternative schools. She explains, “For 40 years, my goal has been to empower young people to have a positive impact on the challenges they face. I love the collaboration process – letting everyone know that whatever idea comes to them is needed by the project and taking responsibility for the unity and beauty of the creative project.”
She is founder of the Unity Through Creativity Foundation, which states: “Our Mission is to educate adults and children about the power of Creativity to shed light on humanity’s common experience. We support the arts as a vehicle for communication, healing and unity, while promoting an interdisciplinary approach to Creativity.” The organization emphasizes, “Collaborative murals bring joy and empowerment while making a lasting and uplifting transformation to the environment. Our signature Arts Integration process takes many ideas and folds them into one original mural. We make Shared Visions of Success – an essential element for Peace Building – and reinforce your community’s values and mission.”
Laurie has used visual art and storytelling in consensus building, leadership training, conflict prevention and values clarification with government organizations (NASA, Department of Interior, Army Corps of Engineers), social service agencies (Hospitals, Hospices and Foster Homes), universities, and businesses. In coaching teachers and administrators in public and private schools, she states, “I focus on developing meaningful projects to heal community heartbreak (academic mastery always follows), violence prevention and peace-building through art.”
She was honored as “Woman of the Year” in McKeesport, PA, for facilitating murals designed and painted by foster teens for the family courts. The artist declares, “I see art as a tool to clarify what’s important, to strengthen community and to connect with the Creator.”
Visit Laurie’s website lauriemarshallartist.com
Carla Woody
Carla Woody created this stunning work of art “Under the Snow Moon”, composed of fiber clay, Czech seed beads, ceramic beads, coral, copperite, turquoise, findings, oil and cold wax medium, 13″ x 13″ x 10″. It was selected for inclusion in “The Spirit of Resilience” exhibition. With her entries the artist wrote, “This piece is meant to commemorate the resilience of the Hopi people, living peacefully as stewards of Mother Earth. During visionary rituals in the kiva, they pray not only for themselves but all beings. Indigenous traditions are the sacred threads that hold the world together, instilling clarity about what truly matters — connection to all things, reciprocity and community.”
Carla Woody is also the founder of Kenosis Spirit Keepers, a nonprofit organization established “to help preserve Indigenous wisdom traditions in danger of decimation”. The word Kenosis comes from the Greek and means “to empty”. The message of this organization is: “Spirit Keepers are the stewards of our future. The ancient, Indigenous ways instill appreciation for the Mother Earth and all beings. When Spirit Keepers are honored and come together to share their sacred practices, we are all nourished. Our common foundation is strengthened.”
The Allies Gallery is a program of Kenosis Spirit Keepers. Through this online art gallery the organization sponsors “talented Indigenous artists who have little to no exposure or opportunity to offer their work for sale. Any artists featured have agreements with Kenosis Spirit Keepers for this purpose.” More information can be found on the Kenosis Spirit Keepers website.
Although some of their events have been cancelled and rescheduled, you can look forward to these in 2021: January 18-28, 2021: Spiritual Travel in Chiapas, Mexico: Entering the Maya Mysteries with Carla Woody, Carol Karasik, Apab’yan Tew and other Maya Wisdom Keepers, artists and healers. Immersion experience in Maya cosmology, arts, medicine, ancient sites and sacred ways of the Living Maya in southern Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico. A portion of tuition tax-deductible. In March 25-30, 2021 it presents Spiritual Travel to Hopi: Sacred Guardians of the World with Carla Woody, Hopi Wisdom Keepers and artists. Immersion experience in the Hopi Way.
Visit Carla Woody’s website: carlawoodyart.com
Visit the Kenosis Spirit Keepers website: kenosisspiritkeepers.org
Tracy Ellyn
Tracy Ellyn’s focus is not only on her gallery pieces, but also on her Zen Tov Project. As founder, its mission it is “to make the world a better place via the arts”. Harvard has used Tracy’s artwork for their “Epilepsy and Behavior” covers, and then referred her art this year to the Kant Institute’s Hidden Truths Project, directed by Dr. Julie Thompson-Dobkin. Tracy’s epilepsy art, along with other artists around the globe, was in their exhibition “The Faces of Epilepsy,” this summer. Tracy, her son, and family members have epilepsy, so the art is not only therapeutic but an important way to spread the message of research and global understanding.
Tracy also helped to co-curate an exhibition on The Life and Legacy of Steven Sotloff in February 2020. Steven was the late journalist who was barbarically beheaded on international TV in 2014. Tracy’s memorial piece honoring Steven was also in the exhibition. She states, “Exhibitions with a message teach us all what is at stake in the world, and what journalists go through in conflict-torn countries to bring us the ground truth, warn us of terrorist groups like ISIS, and foster positive change.” Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music also selected Tracy’s art for their Fall/Winter 2019 journal cover because its healing qualities emanated with their music.
With her entries to “The Spirit of Resilience” exhibition Tracy provided this statement: “I keep myself resilient to illness, and encourage others to do so, by using my art as a catalyst for inspiration and experience, rather than focusing on the disease process itself. The paradigm shifts completely. It becomes more curious and fascinating than dreadful. I hope this process can help viewers, as well.”
Read article about the Zen Tov Project: healing-power-of-art.org/the-zen-tov-project-an-oasis-of-healing-through-the-arts
Visit her website tracyellyn-recentworks.com
Visit the Zen Tov Project Foundation website: thezentovproject.org
Andre Chatelain and Agnes Jorgensen
Andre Chatelain and Agnes Jorgensen are the cofounders of Painting A New World, a nonprofit organization that focuses mainly on supporting artists in Africa and Haiti through a mural art program. Murals are painted on school walls and/or community centers by local artists. They explain, “The aim is to create positive change by employing local artists and educating communities about their environment and future.”
They believe that “art has the power to create positive change for the benefit and sustainability of communities locally and in developing countries.”
They recently informed us in August 2020, they received a report from Joram Mathenge, Director of Kiangure Springs Environment Initiative ( KSEI ), about his valiant efforts to help and protect the people of Kenya during this Covid 19 epidemic. KSEI has joined forces with community leaders and their Partners and launched a Grassroots Alliance Against COVID. Painting A New World is a grassroot partner and supports KSEI on a community level by painting large murals in public places to create awareness and promote behavioral changes against Covid 19. Agnes and Andre tell us, “Joram Mathenge is a hero in this current challenge in Kenya.”
Read interview with Andre and Agnes about Painting A New World
Andre Chatelain submitted “Queen of the Niger River”, oil on canvas, 48″ x 20″, and it was selected for “The Spirit of Resilience” exhibition. With his entry he wrote, “Through my medium of choice, oil on canvas, I have been painting the beauties of Africa through its people hoping to transmit a lasting emotion to the viewer by showing a different aspect of this continent. For many, the perception of Africa is one of desolation, struggles, poverty and despair. I paint beauty, hope, happiness and pride of real people. They define resilience.”
Visit his website andrechatelain.com
Agnes Jorgensen’s painting “School of Life”, oil on canvas, 30″ x 22″ was selected for “The Spirit of Resilience”. With her submissions, she included this statement: “For me, resilience and inner strength go hand in hand. Resilience is the measure of who we are and what we do with what we have. Throughout my travels in foreign countries, I have met admirable people who have had to overcome hardship. The capacity to recover from adversity takes an enormous amount of inner strength and relentless hope and dreams. These individuals exemplify the spirit and power of resilience. As an artist, I felt compelled to communicate their essence on canvas.
Visit her website jorgensenart.com
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