Celebration of Life
A Visionary Art Exhibition Honoring the Curatorial Work of John Butcher
14 Contemporary visionary artists pay tribute through their work (circa 1980 – 2011) to a guiding light who saw in their art prophetic wisdom and images that could lead to a new world order – one of true peace and equality. Honoring John Beverely Butcher for his work in social justice through the visionary arts and spoken word this exhibit truly honors all life giving sources.
The show hangs in the A Woman’s Eye Gallery Annex and herchurch (the purple church). The gallery is open Saturday and Sundays from noon to 5:00 PM and by appointment (415-265-8237). The show is coordinated by artist SYBIL ERDEN and several of her pieces are on exhibit.
This posting gives you a glimpse of the show through a painting by Mariela de la Paz. Please come by and enjoy, be moved and inspired by all the pieces in the show.
Mariela de la Paz: As an artist, and native of Chile, responding to calling of my ancestral roots, I have  researched the  Mesoamerican, Andean and Amazon cultures.  I have also partaken in countless Ceremonies using Sacred Power Plants as Sacrament.
These paintings reflect the traditions of ancient rituals, which invoke the ancestral memory of the Universal Soul. Sacred plants are entities of a female nature, and considered by the sages of these cultures as spiritual allies.
The substances within these plants create an information current in the body which, through resonance, arouses and triggers a cosmic awakening.
This is intimately related to the procreation of life on this planet, and it brings light and love.
My visions have been recorded in these paintings. They express the journey of the soul in its vital cycles:  birth, death, the celebration of life, and the transcendence into planes of ascension and liberation. I perceive visionary art as a form of “darshan†because the person who contemplates these paintings receives a blessing: The observer becomes the subject.
There is a universal resonance of the human experience. This is an expression of something profoundly intimate and personal, and yet –
in a universal way in which we have all lived.
Sacred medicinal plants act as a meditative state that stills the minds, and in that manner connects us with reality in all its forms – taking us away from linear time and putting us in touch with multidimensionality. My intention is to deliver through forms and colors a timeless and sacred message,  hoping to impact the eye of the observer, catalyzing a unique and non-repeatable experience, as  a form of  meditation  and mystical opening.