Art of Ritual

I am a Ritual Artist and Writer.

I create reverence in concert with nature, spiritual essence, symbolic imagery, and language. This blend of desires brings symbolic action together with collective presence. Humans have created rituals since the beginning of time to express what words alone cannot capture - the indescribable magic of nature, the cycles of seasons, and stages of life. Ritual offers a way to honor shared gifts and experiences within community.

As a writer, I seek to articulate my feelings in relationship to life with emotional honesty from deep within. I yearn to understand my emotional ranges in order to be in a balanced relationship with myself, community, and Spirit. My purpose in writing is to share my legacy of knowledge about living and dying, the value and benefits of creating ritual art, learnings from Buddhist philosophy, and writing poetry.

Ritual Art is dynamically rooted in participatory performance, social engagement, and ritual design. Ritual is a living art form. I create art in participation with my audience that brings peoples’ deep emotions and sense of spirituality to life through visual creations and verbal exchanges. I work with intangible materials words - gestures, atmosphere, and memory – just as a painter works with pigments on canvas. The experience itself is the artwork, existing in the moment of its creation.

In my work, I listen deeply to people’s stories. I’m listening for what their joys and sadnesses are, and what remains confusing and/or unrecognized. This is the source of my work with individuals, families, and the larger community.

My art is enriched by my training as a chaplain and a grief counselor. I have worked for many years with people to mark significant transitions in their lives. You may view photos of my Ritual Art work below.

My background includes an MA in Human Development focusing on Spirituality, a two-year certificate in Process Work Psychology, ten years as a hospice grief counselor, and decades of creating public and personal rituals for individuals, groups, and communities.

Rituals of Remembrance Altars

Altars created for a Water Ritual to Honor Ancestors. Participants were invited to make their own personal Altar of Remembrance to honor their loved ones. This provided maximum privacy through an online collective experience.

Annual Ceremony Honoring Caregivers

A ritual and dance performance allowed cancer survivors to honor their caregivers. The ritual included a communal Blessing of Scarves to be given to each caregiver. The dance portrayed people randomly getting diagnosed with cancer. At first those with cancer resisted support from friends and family and then moved into acceptance of the help from others. This performance had original music composed and a small choir to sing. The blessed scarves were disseminated to cancer survivors to give to their caregivers.

Illuminations: Fires of Our Passion Shrine

The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater installation on the campus of St. Catherine’s University, was made up of shrines honoring female deities from around the world. My shrine in the installation honored the women who were burned as witches from the 1400’s through late 1700’s in Europe and in British America. The inquisition during that period-of-time ended, but the killing and harming of women continues today. Visitors to the exhibit could remember women still being harmed today and wrote names on ties that they would hang from torso casts of women’s bodies installed in a big circle around a willow tree. A place for reflection was designated under the tree.

Letting Go of Racial Guilt

Members of a racial awareness group after sharing stories created this spiral collage made from nature’s gifts.

Adolescent Rite of Passage

Girls spontaneously made this gigantic altar to honor their change from girlhood to womanhood. They then decided they wanted to make masks and join in the Annual Heart of Beast May Day Parade in South Minneapolis.

Spirits Call Doll

This 10-foot doll was made to launch my private practice, Rites of Change: Transitions with Courage. I danced with the doll through a large group of friends and colleagues who added accessories to the front and back of the figure.

Anger Release Ritual

This ritual process was created to release personal anger in a small group. A safe space was made to smash small pots representing each person’s anger. Then, the shards from the pots along with clay were used to create something beautiful, a personal mandala.