In the fall the editor of the UCLA Spirituality and Higher Education Newsletter found my website through a search and asked me to write an article for their upcoming issue on spirituality and artistic expression. The article is titled "The Relationship Between Spirituality and Artistic Expression: Cultivating the Capacity for Imagining" and you can find it here.
To the left of the article are links to a couple of other articles you may be interested in as well. The article on "The Empowering of Art and Spirituality" is written by Marilyn Russell, a Native American woman and scholar. You can see some of her beautiful artwork here. She has some amazing art of the Madonna and Spirit Woman. Definitely worth clicking over!
Also, I want to highly recommend the Glen Workshop in Santa Fe, NM the first week of August! I have gone twice before, once in 1999 when it was held in Abiquiu and in 2005 in Santa Fe. Each time I took the Nonfiction/Spiritual Writing Workshop with different teachers (Virginia Stem Owens and Paula Huston) and each time had such a rich experience of the workshops, the liturgies, and the great conversations at meals. My husband came with me last time and took the Seminar option, which was led by a Native American artist that he really enjoyed. They also have workshops in poetry, fiction, mosaics, calligraphy, and others. It is also where I got to meet Rich Murray from Pilgrim Path. We were in the Paula Huston workshop together. The Glen is sponsored by Image Journal, a very worthwhile publication based here in Seattle.
And one more resource just in: my friend Rachelle who is the Urban Abbess is now also Magpie Girl, and is also releasing her very first zine. The first issue is Hiver: A Zine for Midwinter (Hiver is French for winter) and only $4 to get an issue of it. I haven't seen it yet, but knowing Rachelle I am sure it is delightful and you know how much I adore winter.
And if you can stand one more dog photo. . .
-Christine Valters Paintner