In Memoriam: Honoring Our Healers

“In Memorium was started in 2014 after I met the brilliant and transformative Sue Hoya Sellars, a matriarch in our Intentional Creativity painting community, during a week-long retreat. She took ill in the last days of the retreat and two weeks later was in a coma. As our community chanted, painted and prayed, I began a painting honoring her strength and gifts. After her death I didn’t complete the painting. In 2021, when another community matriarch–Carmen Baraka, a Native American healer–passed on, worldwide COVID losses magnified the grief in our community to global levels. I retrieved the unfinished painting and completed it by adding healing elements from Carmen’s work to those honoring Sue, thus combining the wisdom of our two matriarchs on one canvas. This painting offers a healing balm to future generations from those who lovingly and generously shared wise healing during their lives.”