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.
"Over the years I have been blessed to make, and learn from those who make, masks, puppets, ritual art and do storytelling whether in photographic image or spoken word. As a priestess and artist I see myself as another co-creator alongside a community of co-creators within the Heart of Mystery that blesses us all. For, like the Sun, I am a circle. You are a circle. And like the words of a song...'We are a circle within a circle...' Every time we join together we bring the circle of who we are and all of our sacred connections and passions to the larger circle(s) of community that we are.
"My own journey started with going from being a child to a young adult within a Christian tradition that nurtured my soul like the Sun blesses a seed. Growing as an adult brought changes to my path via my expanding awareness of the sacred connection to all life. I honored these changes by becoming both an artist and in time a priestess of Wicca--an Earth honoring spiritual tradition. Over the years I have learned much from both traditions and now since becoming a part of the Walker Community Church community I have, like the Sun, come full circle. So that now all that I have known and learned from both traditions makes me aware of just how much links each of us to the Beloved Mystery that shines within and for us all.
"Now each year as Winter comes I honor this shared light within us all on the longest night of the year at the Winter Solstice. In my photograph [above] titled “Eye of the Sun” you will see the glowing heart of the Sun candle that has been blessed by the intertwined hearts of my beloved Walker Church and Pagan communities at a celebration of the Winter Solstice at Walker Community Church. From that night on this candle burns daily blessing the Sun and us all. Finishing its daily burning by the Summer Solstice as we welcome the full joyous presence of the Sun into the circles we share and the work we do.
[Below: "Offering" (Offering at Brigid's Holy Well on the Summer Solstice)]
"That these cycles of dark to light and light to dark do continue, even as our circles and connections to each other expand, gives us hope for this sacred planet we call home. Sharing our circles and cycles with each other--like the Sun shines upon us all--gives birth to a hope that will exist both when the light of Summer makes all things seem possible and showing us that the same hope will continue even when the Sun seemingly goes to sleep and waits for rebirth again in the womb of Winter’s darkness."