
“The world is not a problem to be solved; it is a living being to which we belong. The world is part of our own self and we are a part of its suffering wholeness. Until we go to the root of our image of separateness, there can be no healing. And the deepest part of our separateness from creation lies in our forgetfulness of its sacred nature, which is also our own sacred nature.”
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
This week’s member zine features a harvest of posts from members who have chosen to share their insights into earth-honoring art practices and products as part of our #EcoArtChallenge. We are also gifted with a beautiful guest Member Letter from Member Coordinators Marnie Dangerfield and Chatelle Jeram, reflecting on the ways in which the creative process can very much mirror the processes of nature, and can give us some inspiration and supportive context when we next go to the canvas to paint!
Use the jumplinks below 👇🏽 to Choose Your Own Adventure

ARTIFACT painting #wip, by MUSEA Member Helen Spedding
Community Highlights
A Roundup of our MUSEA
#EcoArtChallenge Shares!






#EcoArtChallenge Tip
Paint Waste Water System!

Art Journal Musings on Ecology by MUSEA Team Member, Milagros Suriano-Rivera
Member Letter
The Creation Process as a Mirror of Nature
by Member Coordinators Marnie Dangerfield & Chatelle Jeram

Creative Collage by Chatelle Jeram
Dear Musea Members and Guest readers,
With Earth Day this month (though isn’t everyday Earth Day?😊) and our Mother Tree Art Call Exhibit Opening it feels so good to be exploring the theme of ecology with you.
“The word ecology is derived from the Greek oikos, the word for home.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer – Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
It’s so important for us to pause, create and explore our relationship to the Earth and our local Ecosystems. It’s Spring where I am, but I know it’s Fall elsewhere, and other regions don’t experience the same types of season rhythms that I do. Being lucky enough to work with Chatelle I get to connect with the weather she experiences and the pictures she shares with me of the land and trees and beings that are in New Zealand, that I have never been lucky enough to meet (yet). Chatelle is always a day ahead of me too, it’s fun to joke about how she’s always ahead of me😊
During our Musea Members Artist Circle this month we asked for people to share what time, day and season it was where they are, so that we could witness and connect with this truth that while we are all connected along the red thread, we are experiencing the seasons, the days, the diurnal cycles at different times and in different ways as we connect in the quantum in our virtual Museum circle.
Taking note of the season that you’re currently experiencing and the land that you inhabit, we invite you to enjoy this musing from Chatelle on parallels between painting a canvas and gardening.
Is there anything more delicious than immersing in a nature setting? Walking amongst Redwoods, lying on the lush grass sprouting in the shade of an oak tree, barefoot on the sand as fine grained as flour, jumping into a lake.
For centuries, artists have been inspired by nature, as are many of us in our Musea community. Some of us might call ourselves artists. Most of us will consider ourselves creative beings. I have discovered that as I paint on a fresh canvas using Intentional Creativity® approaches, I am planting a garden or witnessing the growth of a thriving forest.
The first layers of paint are applied without expectation. We bring in intentions and mix with water, making the soil. We might add compost or waste products to these first layers of paint by acknowledging what we want to change or release as particular colors.
We add water to help the mixing process.
We indicate on the canvas the seeds of thoughts we are planting. Maybe we bring in an outline of a recognizable form such as a face or a tree or a bird.
And we tend, just as we would tend to plants. Pruning leaves, spraying water, shifting in and out of sunlit locations. In this way, we tend to the canvas, creating intricate marks, changing outlines, filling in blocks of color, bringing out details.
As the plants grow in unexpected ways, so our art grows on our canvas. And we remember the roots of where we started with making this image and witness what has grown out of the soil. Fruits and flowers blossom, as we stand back and observe what we created on the canvas or the page. Some fruits taste better to us than others; sometimes we want to add a little sugar or transform it into a preserve, or jam. Other times, we enjoy the fruit just as it is, fresh off the branches.
Whatever the outcome of our gardening/painting efforts, we can be surprised by what has grown, what has shrunk into the soil to nurture what wants to come forward and what is flourishing. And now we can sit with the plants or the artifact and muse about what comes forth.
This theme this month inspires us as we think of you and all our members; our community consciously choosing to explore their relationship with the Earth. How do you nurture nature and how are you nurtured by nature in return? If you have not had a chance to watch this months Artist Circle, it is available on your Membership Portal and there is an Intentional Creativity process for you to create and explore with this month. We’d love to witness your journey in the iMusea app and see your musings.
“To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe — to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it — is a wonder beyond words.”
― Joanna Macy
~ By Marnie Dangerfield with input from Chatelle Jeram

Announcements
Visit our Guild-Led Event Calendar below for a list of upcoming Intentional Creativity events you may enjoy!
What’s On at the Museum!
Mother Tree Museum Show

Claim your Complimentary or Donation Based ticket to the Mother Tree Museum Show and Exhibit Opening. The show will feature curated artwork from the Mother Tree Global Call for art, weaving together a powerful visual story of women’s love and advocacy of our global forests through multimedia art.
This Museum Show and Opening for the Mother Tree Exhibit will take place LIVE online on April 20, 2022, in honor of the upcoming Earth Day. The show will be hosted by MUSEA Curator, Shiloh Sophia, Mother Tree Art Call Jurors, and special guest TreeSister Artist Liaison, Kathleen Brigidina, who will share about TreeSister’s women-led global reforestation work and how artists are involved!
At the show we will share the Mother Tree Exhibit Presentation – a celebration of the artwork and the co-creation of global reforestation, as well as an honoring of the Earth and the Mother Trees that keep our forests alive.
This show is open to the public and will also serve as a fundraiser for TreeSisters, with donation options included as a part of the ticketing process.
If you do not plan to submit to the art call and would like a way to support our goal of raising $5000 to plant over 90,000 trees, you can donate for your ticket. There are $10, $20, $50, and personalized donation options via the Eventbrite Ticket page!
Cosmic Kiss Virtual Tour @Musette with Shiloh Sophia
Purchase your ticket for Cosmic Kiss – An Exploration of our Relationship with the Muse, Mystery and Myth guided by MUSEA Curator, Shiloh Sophia. Virtual Exhibit Tour at Musette Atelier, May 1 from 12 to 1 pm PT!
About this event
Join MUSEA Curator Shiloh Sophia for a virtual tour of the new retail location Musette Atelier on the Sonoma Plaza. This livestreamed event will feature an opening ceremony. Shiloh will give a reading from her new book, Rodeo of the Soul, and share about the vision for this location in relationship to the Intentional Creativity Museum. Bring your cuppa tea or glass of champagne and toast to the future together!
All proceeds go towards supporting the re-opening of our physical space so that women may come in person to practice self-expression and Intentional Creativity in the comfort of a like-hearted community rooted in love ❤️
Those who register will receive a recording of the event.
For questions please contact support@musea.org.
All of our Museum Shows are Complimentary and open to the public! We encourage you to invite your friends and family to the show. Simply copy and share this link on your Social Media, email or text! https://imusea.org/attend-an-event/
Join our Membership community from around the world to practice devotional creativity, meet for monthly virtual artist circles, philosophy salons, hone our craft, and create together for personal and collective healing!
MUSEA is a global community rooted in a matriarchal lineage that passed the tools of transformational art-making, from hand to hand. Our legacy is in the field of education and activism, and through exhibiting the artwork of thousands of women.
Come create with us!

Curator, Shiloh Sophia (center), with Musea Guild and Staff Members at the Vivid 2021 Gathering!

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