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Visual Art: professional symbolic/visionary art from a shamanic practitioner
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Ishmira Kathleen Thoma is a shamanic practitioner, teacher, and professional symbolic/visionary artist. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin and a certificate from the Institute for the Expressive Arts at Salve Regina University. Ishmira is also a Certified Hypnotherapist, and has studied with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. She was active for many years in a drumming/teaching circle based in Montreal, Quebec, where she also was the publisher and designer of the quarterly Seraphim Journal. She has been a professional artist/illustrator since 1983. Her work is richly symbolic and theologically instructive, and was exhibited at the Theosophical Society headquarters in conjunction with the Parliament of World's Religions in Chicago, as well as in many local exhibitions. Ishmira teaches shamanic journey work and image retrieval, and is a featured artist in the highly recommend books "Art and Healing: Using Expressive Art to Heal your Body, Mind, and Spirit", by Barbara Ganim, and "Visual Journaling: Going Deeper than Words" by Barbara Ganim and Susan Fox .
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| Artist Preview | contact: (203) 481-8967
images and text copyright 1993-2001 Ishmira Kathleen Thoma |
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Ishmira holding "The Door to the Possible", a painting from her years in Paris. It shows an image of spiritual rebirth.
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Artist Statement:
"What comes out of me as a painter is from my visionary experiences in
my shamanic work. What I write comes out pretty much the same way. I am taught
by meetings with teachers in the other world. They show me many places,beings
and possibilities. An image is part matter and part spirit; just as we are. My
images come through me and then flow back out. My job, and it is not easy, is
to get out of the way and let it happen. The word metaphor means transformer, a
crossing over from one state into another. A symbol is a physical/ sensuous
expression of the immaterial or spirit. In my work, I make a metaphors, and
symbols. Not everyone can learn from these or understand them all. There are
many levels of meaning, not just one; and they can hold a different meaning for
each person who sees them. That is the power of a symbol. I do not control what
others see in my work. But I know what it means to me when I create them. There
is an ancient history behind the tradition of using symbols. I follow this old
path and drink from the waters of light."
- Ishmira Kathleen Thoma, on her role as image retrieval facilitator
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"The Grail and the Dragon"
by Ishmira Kathleen Thoma.
"One night in a dream, I was shown many places. I saw a great dragon, lying upon a field of emerald green. He seemed ill. He appeared to be a part of the earth itself. A great angel appeared and gave him to drink from a golden cup. These were symbols of healing through the power of love and forgiveness."
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"Flying into the Sun"
by Ishmira Kathleen Thoma. |
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