We Need Each Other
“We need joy as we need air.
We need love as we need water.
We need each other as we need the Earth we share.”
~ Maya Angelou
This week’s zine opens with an honoring of our Art Ancestor, Carmen Baraka, who has inspired our membership journey for this year ‘We Are All Related’. It has been exactly one year to the day since Carmen walked on last year, and her spirit continues to impact and shape our community. We also hear from Amber Samaya Gould who offers a gentle intentional practice that serves to open and soften us up enough to witness any painful emotions we may be pushing down – the kind that can unknowingly contribute to creative blocks and simply need our loving attention. She speaks to an important reality of community – that we need each other, the earth, the air, the trees, and how key it is to acknowledge this. To complete, we share a member letter with a special focus on the ‘why’ behind our choice to create this Member Zine in the first place, and our intention to truly weave the art and stories of the individual members of our collective together in order to cultivate a beautiful intimacy and ‘knowing’ of the who, what and where of our global community of artists!
Use the jumplinks below 👇🏽 to Choose Your Own Adventure
‘Family Portrait’ by Margaret Matos
Image from the Carnaval of Spirit Love BIWOC Community Exhibit
Honoring an Art Ancestor
Today we are honoring the life and memory of Carmen Baraka, Ancestor to Intentional Creativity Lineage and Guide. Carmen is the inspiration behind our yearlong membership journey ‘We Are All Related’, in which we are examining our interconnectedness and the ways in which we so beautifully need each other as we explore the many facets of relationship and relatedness in our lives.
We are honoring her today, February 22, exactly one year after she walked on with deep gratitude for the gifts she has shared with us and for choosing this community as her own.
Below is a beautiful excerpt about Carmen’s life and legacy, highlighting her commitment to healing for Indigenous peoples and for all beings. Carmen called circle and brought people together in community. She taught about our interconnectedness and the power of love and unity. She will always remain a cherished Art Ancestor, Elder and Teacher in the Musea Community.
About Carmen ~ written by Lys Anzia from WUNRN
Carmen Baraka’s Native American Name is Spirit Warrior. She is an instructor of global native women’s wisdom, consciousness, activism through native traditional practices and ceremonies. Her Apache, Cherokee and Colombian-Peruvian Indian heritage bring a unique and powerful perspective to her work. She has been gathering circles to empower women and girls for over 30 years. Her work involves private invitational gatherings, community aid and education and a recent address to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women regarding the plight of Native women and girls. Her strong sense of history and injustice is driving her forward to reach new goals.
Although aware of the chain of broken treaties, the atrocities of the Indian schools, continuing racism, sex trafficking and the oppression of the reservation system, she chooses to embody the most positive aspects of her heritage: “We have endured unbelievable hardship, and we survive and reach out to bring the circle of rainbow beings together and pray for the healing for all.”
Whether exercising her skills one on one as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) for a neglected and abused child, providing spiritual inspiration through group invocations or framing objectives for future projects, Carmen brings a much needed empathy, understanding and sense of urgency to the issues she highlights. “My quest is to bring indigenous ceremony and circle to bridge the gap between cultures, remind us that our ancestors all began in circle and I believe finding our way back to that paradigm will be our healing.”
If you wish to connect with Carmen, we invite you to visit the Spirit Warrior Exhibit at Musea Intentional Creativity Museum to view her artwork and writing, as well as videos of her speaking and teaching.
‘Ceremony’ painting in honor of Carmen Baraka by Curator, Shiloh Sophia
Creative Inquiry – We Need Each Other
with Amber Samaya Gould
Intentional Creativity Foundation President
This weekend, I spent some conscious and precious time in Communion with what is commonly referred to as ‘Nature’, and what I now refer to as ‘That Which is in Relationship’. This is an integral part of my devotional creative practice – to feel my place in community with the natural world, to be in relationship with that which is in relationship. Witnessing, beholding, offering gratitude, accepting nourishment, offering it in return, and remembering my place in the mycelium of life. With each cool, clean and abundant breath I took in while standing on the precipice of this lake, I felt overwhelming gratitude and grace. The thought came to me “I need you. I cannot survive without you. Thank you.”
It was almost an overwhelming sense of connection, a deep and powerful need – the good kind of need – for the trees that breathe in CO2 and gift us oxygen in return. For the water that keeps my organs and body alive and all my cellular activity zinging. For the sun shining down warm and loving on my skin – this starlight from 90 million miles away, at juuuuust the right distance from the earth that all this magnificent life and biodiversity is possible. I felt so…small. So incredibly, profoundly, perfectly, marvelously small.
Yes. This was a truthing moment. “I need you.” I could feel this still small voice speaking so clear. Needing so purely. It was speaking to the truth of my interdependence with all life. But there was something more too…another layer. I was also hearing and acknowledging the voice of a chronic loneliness I have been holding inside as the social isolation from the pandemic persists; the feeling of a sort of desertification of a vibrant, lush, green place that used to be called ‘community’, which frighten and saddens me. “I need you. You need me. We need each other.” I said it out loud like a prayer, a wish, a breaking of spells.
Video of Amber singing a channeled song while sitting by a lake in the woods
It felt good to witness this voice inside and this need. A sort of low-lying grief I have been pushing away or holding in. “I need you.” Yes, I do.
I am so grateful that when I enter into a state of connection and communion, my heart opens up wide, and anything I am holding onto or hiding from comes to the surface and can then be seen. When witnessed, the pain or the burden feels somehow lighter, I can breathe more deeply, and my body opens. From here, my creativity seems to be able to flow once again, nearly effortlessly. The song that came to me in this moment of renewed openness felt as if it arrived on the breeze, the words drawn up from a clear, cool well, spilling out freely. There was a flow to it. I simply followed. I was with-nessing and witnessing creation pouring through me. I felt a sense of being a mirror of creation. Fully connected and reflected. I could see myself in the water’s surface.
Today I invite you to a special place of your own – perhaps your art studio, your car, your patio, or your bed before you go to sleep. A place where you can take a conscious moment to become quiet, to breathe a little bit deeper than you have been for the rest of your waking hours. To allow this deeper, gentler, non-harried breath to bring a softness to you, your body, your being, and then invite your heart to speak. Is there something you are holding onto, swallowing down, pressing in, that would like to be witnessed and acknowledged? Ask. Do not be afraid.
Whatever arises – a troubling thought, a jagged feeling, an unmet need – can you witness it with compassion and love? Can you be a good friend to you and invite the relief that comes from truly witnessing yourself? Mmmmm. Try it. That feels better!
If you move through this small intentional practice, consider entering into creativity after this. Maybe that looks like journaling, or heading to your canvas to add some strokes of witness for what was just revealed, or playing some music and dancing intuitively. Whatever creative act calls to you, this is a good way to integrate this new awareness, honor what you have seen, and experience the creative FLOW that comes when the emotional log jam is removed from your headwaters.
I offer an invitation to this practice with compassion for our shared humanity, knowing that sometimes we can rush through our days carrying unspoken pain, burdens, anxieties and fears that end up creating an overall feeling of restriction or heaviness, perhaps even shame. I share this practice because I know that sometimes the simplest act of slowing down, breathing, and inviting this part of us to speak can make all the difference to our wellbeing and can open the gates of our powerful creativity.
I share this practice because… I need you, and you need me, and we need each other for these kind of reminders!
with shimmering lakeside love,
amber xo
Ritual Painting by Colleen Crotty-Good
Member Letter
The ‘Why’ Behind our Member Zine
Dear Musea Members and Guest Readers,
Did you know that Musea Intentional Creativity Museum is an individual branch of the larger Musea Tree, and the body that hosts your Musea Membership? The Museum has been up and running for 2 years, producing monthly virtual art exhibits since its opening under the direction of Curator Shiloh Sophia and Curatorial Director and Intentional Creativity Foundation President, Amber Gould.
Many of our Musea Members have been connected to our Intentional Creativity Community for a long time, and we also have members who choose to join us after attending one of our Museum’s art exhibits, often family members and fans of participating artists, and general Museum-lovers who want to support the vision of Intentional Creativity. Therefore, our Membership Team recognized the importance of weaving Museum specific updates as well as our Membership happenings into the overall communications we share. We have such a rich and dynamic membership community that spans the globe, whose art and stories simply must be witnessed!
Taking this into considering, our Member Team decided that we wanted to find a medium to showcase the magic of all that is being created within the larger membership community and shared within the iMusea app (our proprietary membership and guest connection platform). We think that all of the beautiful content being generated, shared, and woven together by our collective of artists deserves to be honored with its own creative channel.
In researching and heart-storming a new and emergent approach to sharing with our members and about them, we became inspired by an old creative approach to sharing information amongst people with similar interests called the Zine. Zine is abbreviated from Magazine and means mini-magazine, which anyone can make. No special training is needed, just the desire to express what you want through art and the written word in a way that can be shared with others through individual circulation.
Zines first became popular in the 1930s by science fiction fans who loved the art and the scripts for those original comics. They’ve tended to have periods of fading out, followed by periods of resurgence in popularity for specific groups or purposes. They were used for underground political activism in the 1960s, and by the mid-1970s/ 80s they were popular with punk rock bands. They moved into obscurity for a while but have become popular once again (they can even be found on Instagram) with a vast array of topics being explored; anything from Mental Health to the growing opportunities for female mechanics. However, the team did not choose to use the title of Zine for our communications because of its current popularity but because we saw it as being in alignment with the Intentional Creativity approach to art-making, and because we loved this following definition of the history of Zines; “a safe space for creative exploration.”
We want to provide that safe and creative space to share from the heart of our collective, as well as bring more definition to the who, what and where of our global community members. This Zine allows us to share the art and stories of our individual members. It is a more intimate and endearing form of communication that serves to create a strong weave between us.
The Musea Member Zine is in its infancy stages of development and we hope that readers have been enjoying it so far. Because we want it to reflect your interests as highly creative community members, we are open to requests and thoughtful feedback from you as it evolves.
Thank you for being a part of our global collective of artists – those who crave healing and transformation in themselves and the world. Those who celebrate beauty, honor life, devote to creativity, and embrace just how much we need each other at this time!
May the art and moving personal stories continue to flow!
~ By Jessica Richmond, Musea CoCurator and Magazine Lead
Announcements
Here is Monthly Relationship Inquiry Exploration Card on the topic of COMMUNITY. This is available on the All Members Portal for download and print for your watercolor journals. We invite you to share your exploration with us on the iMusea app, using #membermusings and #community for witness and celebration!
The Musea Member Handbook is now available as a resource on the All Member Portal. This handbook offers insights into the many facets of Musea, our community care practices and principles, and insights on your role as a Musea member and ways you can collaborate with us to expand the reach of Intentional Creativity. We encourage you to give it a read!
We invite you to explore the new Guild Led Intentional Creativity Offerings calendar! This is a great way to explore what Intentional Creativity online and in-person events are currently being offered by our Intentional Creativity Educators – perhaps near you! You can search by key word and look for something of interest to you. We encourage you to take a peek! GO TO CALENDAR
What’s On at the Museum!
Coming up this weekend: Starcatcher Paint Party – A Journey to Reclaiming your Cosmic Address
With Milagros Suriano-Rivera
Musea Intentional Creativity Museum presents our first Guild-Led Museum Programming Event – Starcatcher Paint Party happening this Saturday, February 26 from 1 to 4:30 pm PT! Come as you are. Gather your friends together. Prepare the art studio, and let your Creative Muse out to play, because it’s time to shine!
A personal message from Starcathcer Guide, Milagros Suriano-Rivera:
You are invited to join me Milagros Suriano-Rivera, Guild Member and Color of Woman 2019 Graduate this weekend for the Starcatcher Paint Party: A Journey to Claim Your Cosmic Address! Saturday, February 26 from 1 to 4:30 pm PT!
This offering is quite special to me as I resonate with the idea that we are all cooling sacks of stars, as taught by our beloved Art Ancestor Sue Hoya-Sellars, and also proven by modern science! This belief really gave the term “reach for the stars” a whole new meaning to me! For me it means that I just need to look within myself.
What if we can amplify our sense of place, simply by recognizing that ancient stars constitutes our being, and that there is powerful information and an incredible cosmic connection available right inside of us? What if gaining access to that which wants to be revealed IS as simple reaching for the stars within us?
I would love for us to find out together! As median beings, standing between Earth and the Cosmos, we are already half way there!
During our time together we will:
- Connect with other star travelers – with Red Thread Ritual
- Go on a guided meditation to embody our Cosmic Identity
- Use Metacognitive Drawing to gain access to the unique and brilliant part of you bursting to shine!
- Move our bodies in dance to tune into our somatic experience and integrate the magic and insight arising!
- Create a beautiful and unique wall hanging that we can turn to for creative inspiration and to remind us of who we are, again and again.
This event is hosted by Musea Intentional Creativity Museum. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased through the Eventbrite link below. NOTE, that all proceeds go to the Intentional Creativity Foundation, the 501c3 non-profit that funds our Museum and Membership programming.
I hope to see you there!
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/
Become a Member today of one of the world’s largest and most well established Art Movements – MUSEA : Intentional Creativity!
“Gather with us. Be a part of our movement. While we can’t yet be together in person, we don’t need to be isolated from one another. Every place a MUSEA Member is, a MUSEA IS, so we are all over the world! Being a member is something to feel good about and connected to as a part of each of our individual stories, as well as our collective story.”
~ Shiloh Sophia, MUSEA Curator
Curator, Shiloh Sophia (center), with Musea Guild and Staff Members at the Vivid 2021 Gathering!
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