"Dreaming my dark. Unafraid of my light."

Digital self-portrait

2015

 

 

Bonita Blumenauer has been thinking outside of a traditional art experience since receiving her MFA in Imaging Arts from RIT: (Rochester Institute of Technology) in the early ‘90s.  

 

"Coming to the Minneapolis area after graduate school, I have been profoundly influenced by immersion into a thriving local Pagan community and also by exposure to the community focused work of In The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater.  Both showed me a place beyond the gallery experience, where art is the heart of the active exploration of ritual performed by and for community.  

 

"As a priestess and artist, I am a co-creator alongside a community of co-creators within the Heart of Mystery-- both in large public rituals and in opportunities for private communion.  I see myself, and those I join with in workings, as storytellers using image and ritual experience to further mythic understanding.  

 

"Like a circle within a circle, I see my artistic purpose as helping to provide a doorway through my personal vision as it expands outward into a communal gnostic awareness of the Divine.  My work spans a variety of mediums including-- and often combining-- masks, puppets, mixed and electronic media, a continuing body of photographic work, as well as ritual installation and performance.

 

"Over the years I have been involved with many groups within the local Pagan community; among them -- Church of All Worlds, Covenant of the Goddess, Twin Cities Pagan Pride, Paganistan/Reclaiming, and Earth Conclave.  

 

"My work as priestess and artist has now also found a home with the Walker Community UMC Church. Here, all of the traditions that have shaped who I am, walk together in a way that completes my circle. I am united once again with other artists who see and celebrate the Sacred within community."