Recent Posts

• Human Weighted Blanket – A Virtual Hug by Red Jay
  

  I am particularly inspired by the ‘happenings’ movement, conceived by Allan Kaprow that grew out of the 1950’s and often described as performance, event or situation art. ‘Happenings’ always have a social message, cause or call to action and in my case I will be adding a video element to compliment the pieces. This Happening focuses on pandemic related mental health deterioration due to isolation, loneliness and lack of physical touch. The piece is intended as a Digital Hug’ antidote to this universally felt ‘distancing’ by offering a vicarious experience of human physical contact, yet achieved through the medium of video. It poses the questions; Can we live vicariously through art? Can a piece of art heal the mind and if so can it act as a wellbeing resource to return back to time and time again? For the piece I created a specially designed weighted blanket, but instead of the tiny pellets that make them heavier, which create a sense of security and stability that has been shown to reduce anxiety and unbeknownst to our participants, was actually made up of human platonic touch therapists. These included somatic body workers, professional massagers and professional cuddlers. On Sunday Oct 10, 2021 World Mental Health Day, Red Jay’s project was just one of several installations in Montreal calling attention to mental wellbeing. See coverage of his event. Red Jay (real name Josh Oliver) An international mongrel of English / Canadian breed… A self described ‘Artivist’ focusing on activism, humanism and political & social injustice. See website.

• Accepting Maya By Katie Khatereh Taher
  

  we, this people, on a small and lonely planet * with not much to do but wake each morning and feed our earth based bodies with telling lies that someday we won’t live with suffering, that our loneliness will one day subdue like the penguins who find their lovers and stay forever as one, ‘till death do them part and death will part us only thing i know about what i’m doing is one day dying maybe then i’ll hear the tone of the moon speaking to the tide, her soft voice which is soft only because i want it to be speaking of my rising, sun, and moon as if we are not just atoms floating in space into some other dimension in which we might be freed might be trees, or might be even more hungry as if we are not tiny gods sifting through worldly experience for my part, i’m going to pick out marshmallow charms out of my cereal and keep them for sadness i’m going to listen to aged music about living in the woods in a tree and happiness as a warm gun that hangs between my brows, teasing me like the moths teasing the cat next door next, i feel disappointed about all the books i’m never going to read and then delighted by the the earth that holds me but what do any of us know about compassion? what do any of us know about anything other than happy hour and poutine? other than bureaucracy and netflix? and what if happy hours spent on this small lonely planet have nothing to do with sandals on a patio with sangria but everything to do with your bare feet your mortal toes hugging star moss your eyes wide open to roots of our cosmic illusion? * the first line of this poem is from Maya Angelou’s poem “A Brave and Startling Truth” “All throughout my life I have found magic and intimacy in poetry, from my Persian family’s pride of Rumi and Hafiz, all the way to my fascination with contemporary poetry cultivated in poetry workshops led by my wonderful mentor Sheryda Warrener. During my undergraduate degree I published two small chapbooks, but creating this book, “memory is my name” felt much different… There’s something about the materiality of this book that feels more absolute and grounded. To have professional copies printed, and the possibility of people from all around the world having a copy has made it much more exciting! The whimsical cover is a big part of this “absolute” feel. Abi Taylor and I, friends since our early teens, always played with the idea of creating a book together; her art, my writing. And so, when I began seriously working on this book, I knew the cover had to be her creation. It took us a while to get to the final version of the cover, and her patience and radical alterations are forever inspiring. The cover mimics an image that stays with me a lot, and is captured in many of the poems – our bodies floating on this planet, bodies in water, bodies in Light. I’ve been living at Yasodhara Ashram for 13 months now – a community that celebrates the Divine Feminine, so the creative force of Goddess Saraswati has been a compelling influence on the artistic process! Many of the poems, and all the planning, editing, and finalizing of the book, was done at the Ashram, on the unceded territory of the Ktunaxa peoples. I feel so grateful, so lucky, so thrilled to have had the space and enthusiasm of everyone here. Many even joined me in writing poems at a weekly “poetry club”! I feel so much gratitude for all the Yasodhara Swamis, residents, and karma yogis for their continued support. The poem “accepting maya” was written here at the Ashram and it so perfectly conveys many of the ponderings I have had inside the charm that is the Saraswati lineage. There’s a lot that has been unveiled for me while being at Yasodhara, both within myself and my aspirations, but also a newly found understanding of what it means to be human. I have frequently referred to this book as an offering of reflections on my position as an immigrant, artist, and spiritual seeker living in the material world—I think “accepting maya” carries that purpose.” — Katie Taher is an Iranian-Canadian poet living at Yasodhara Ashram for the last year. She loves mangoes, watercolours, and willow trees. She also can’t get enough of Swami Radha’s teachings & will be participating in the 2022 Yoga Development Course.

• Captikwl by Jodie Berard
  

  “Nsyilxcin language and Syilx culture are taught to honour the natural laws that creator has given us. Storytelling has been known to show up within different forms of art, as you see with these 2 pieces I was gifted from the Cedar Forest.

• Afterlife Bistro by Ashley Laframboise
  

  Afterlife Bistro I write for nobody but God, precious one who listens. Maybe after I die I’ll finally get to sit down with Her at a little French bistro somewhere; tell her all my truths, unravel like a daisy in which each and every petal says She loves me– tell her my story, as I feel it. Maybe we’d just sit there and cry. “This poem was written in a burst of inspiration when I was thinking about how amazing it would be to sit down with Divine Mother–at a Paris bistro, of course (city of my dreams)–and have a long talk about everything that’s happened in my life: the traumas, the heartbreak, the little moments that cracked and shattered everything, and the big ones that fell flat. I envision sitting there with Her for, well, something beyond time and space, and get to talk about it all–with the only one who understands, truly, what it means to be me. To share that with Her. This poem is simple and short, and I like that about it. Some of the truer ones are that way.” Artwork by Ashley LaFramboise   —Ashley is a teacher: both of the BC English curriculum in Creston, BC, and of Kundalini and Dreams. She has been involved with the Ashram for the last decade, and has enjoyed three year-long stints as a grateful and energetic karma yogi. These days she spends her time drenching herself in the Arts and Humanities (there is much to learn in this life), keeping inspiration flowering and flowing, and building community through board games and food.

• Poems by Katie Isabel
  

  Silence The word that resonates, commemorates, permeates this space, is silence. Close your eyes and let your inner voice provide guidance. Tones that used to be tense, so relentlessly loud, anxiety ridden, full of doubt are now bright, calm and proud. This new voice born of silence reflects my glowing, green heart. Everything is self-evident, the words of René Descartes. This new age, a philosophical one, with each stage sacred knowledge is one. Realization, spiritual coronation – no more spiraling narration from that dark voice in my head. There’s just… silence. “I wrote ‘With Grace’ in gratitude and with love to the Ashram, as a way to articulate how the time there greatly impacted me. I wrote ‘Silence’ during quarantine when I first arrived at the Ashram and ‘Ocean Song’ as an ode to the water and it’s unpredictable, humbling, healing qualities. My work is rooted in experiences of love, loss, a sheer awe for life and predominantly emerges from reflecting on the world around me. ” Katie Isabel –– aspiring spoken word artist from the UK, who performed poetry for an audience for the first time whilst living at the ashram in the spring of 2021 With grace: Ocean Song: