Performing Ceremony

Being Art as Medicine is a performance using visual art storytelling and Singing Medicine.

Before I begin to draw I do a singing prayer for each image to connect me to each animal or person I draw. In the performance I show a slide show of the drawings in the series and sing these songs. So the audience is being washed in image and sound.

I then go back through the series and share the process of inspiration of dreams, visions, and instructions from the Great Mystery. I have had children tell me I should draw an octopus, and then the next child brings me a picture they drew of an octopus. It is Divinity speaking to me giving me instructions.

I show slides of the images as the drawing developed so you can see all the stages the image goes through. Seeing finished art can be intimidating, showing the process is inspiring. My purpose in life is to inspire others to do their unique gift and have that gift show up in the world. We need everyone to be their full authentic self, and if I can contribute to another human being taking their next step to live more fully then I am deeply satisfied. People have responded that getting the story of the art helped them see the images and our interconnection in a whole new way.

We then move aside the chairs and join in a ceremonial circle. I go around the inside of the circle and sing to each person a Medicine Song. Each song is unique, some are a quiet spoken prayer, some are “fill the room knock you over crescendo” song. It is all about what each person’s being is telling me would me Medicine to them at that moment. What happens for me is that each person before me is a unique portal to the collective lineage. I surrender to these Ancestral Voices of the land and ocean and feed this song back to the human being before me.

I then open it up to a free form singing circle. I get people started in making their own sound by going up and down a range of toning after that it is time for people to express their soulful inspiration. Once it gets going I drop out of leading and sit back and enjoy the beautiful weaving of sound and expression. I have a really great time, there is no place I would rather be than standing in a sea of human beauty.

Come join us.