"2023 Summer Solstice Oasis in The Woods: An Art & Wellness Festival: This festival is hosted by Junipers Garden, Liminal Grace, Aunt Caryls Art and Herbs, and Phantom Gallery Chicago Network.
Post Discussions: CREATIVE CONVERSATION on BlogTalkRadio July 5, 2023, 10:30 am EST.
July 5 - July 14, 2023.
For one week, June 12-16, 2023, artists of diverse disciplines and ages will converge at Juniper's Garden for a week-long residency. Their collective goal was to build generational bridges while working with ideas and materials from the land to create installations that answer the question,
"How we will rebuild our communities to be stronger and recreate sustainable places to live."
Importantly, this conversation addresses environmental justice's physical and psychological dimensions and impact. The residency occurred in Maryland's Prince Georges's County, the Southernmost region and its remaining rural tier.
On Friday, June 16, 2023, 6–9 pm, as part of the 2023 Summer Solstice Oasis In The Woods: An Art & Wellness Festival at Juniper's Garden, the artists hosted an open house where they presented and offered free and open to the public gallery walks. In addition, they contributed stories of their experiences with the South County ecosystem and the process by which their installations came together.
About The Host/Artist
Samaria is a musician, farmer, and herbalist. Her music and art are inspired by her relationship with nature and her experience as an adoptee and healer. Samaria's music blends traditional folk with afro-beat, R&B, and hip-hop elements. Most recently, she has been exploring the history, music, and construction of the Banjo. As an herbalist, she works to reconnect her community to traditional ways of healing.
About The Artists
Caryl Henry Alexander
Bittersweet, found wood, metallic copper, fabric
Caryl building the sculpture.
For more than 40 years, Caryl Henry Alexander's Work has harnessed the power of creative collaboration with multi-generational, multicultural, and interfaith communities to conceive, design, and implement community art projects in diverse public settings around the globe. In the studio, Caryl's Work includes painting, printmaking, papermaking, textiles, installations, and sculpture. Her media are both traditional and experimental, often incorporating recycled or found objects and natural plant materials. Out in the community, she combines her roles as a visual artist, teaching artist, curator, researcher, lecturer, writer, and social activist to support communities in clarifying their shared goals and turning their ideas into action. Her long-term focus is on culture, environment, and nature. She has exhibited throughout the US and abroad. Her media are both traditional and experimental, often incorporating recycled or found objects and natural plant materials.
Alpha Bruton
Grandmother's Circle: A Tribute to Sallie Alpha and Crecy Ivory
Smudging Ceremony Performed by Rabiah Al-Nur
Chief Curator Phantom Gallery Chicago Network. The Phantom Galleries are temporary exhibitions in nontraditional gallery settings. The mission of the (PGCN) is to promote the betterment of the visual arts community through the arts, promote personal achievement in striving for excellence and continual growth as an artist, and promote cultural activities in exhibits, workshops; galleries exhibitions; art centers; artists in residence projects. She is the Co-founder of the Visual Arts Development Project (VADP), formed in 1996. Is an art service organization - developing projects as living experiments for sustainable practices and an incubator for personal and collective transformation. Visual Arts Development Project is a community-based art organization that provides children, adults, and emerging artists with resources, workshops, and a venue to show and express their art form.
About The artist GIGI
Gigi is a 200-hr certified yoga instructor and eternal student of life. In 2021, she founded Liminal Grace to help folks navigate life with mindfulness, confidence, and ease. Gigi's teaching reflects these intentions by honoring the nuances and complexities of the human experience while encouraging individual power and curiosity along the way. Liminal Grace offers live yoga and meditation sessions, corporate wellness programming and retreats, and educational mindfulness courses, and hosts mindfulness events and retreats.
About the artist Chantel
Her crochet spread that comforted her during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Chantel (she/her) is a Caribbean-American multidisciplinary artist and spiritual diviner. She has yet to find a medium she won't try at least once and often cycles through periods of focusing on one or three mediums more than others. She is currently focusing on fiber arts and collage. After learning how to knit through TikTok and YouTube University, she is working on replacing her storebought sweaters and knitwear with clothes she knit or crocheted. She learned how to crochet from her mother at a young age and often has at least two fiber projects going at once. She uses collages for emotional expression and has led therapeutic art journaling and collaging sessions for over 7 years. After completing her Master's in Social Work at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, in May 2023, she plans to become an art therapist and incorporate creative self-expression into her therapy practice.
About this event
Oasis In The Woods: An Arts & Wellness Festival is an immersive intergenerational experience where art and nature intertwine to bring you beautiful and thought-provoking nature-based art installations, wellness experiences,s and more.
Phantom Gallery Chicago, Grandmother's Circle
Five Black and Indigenous artists-healers from DC, PG County, and Chicago will reside at Junipers Garde in Brandywine, MD, for the week leading up to the festival. During their residence,y they will build nature-based art installations and wellness experiences inspired by nature, the plan, and the vision of creating a more just and sustainable ecosystem in the face of climate change.
The culmination of the residency was a two-day festival where guests had the opportunity to experience these art installations and wellness experiences, contribute to the land through community art projects, and enjoy good food, live music, and community.
The Pause Portal is a space of presence, reflection, and rest. Step into this liminal space for a mind, body, and soul reset. Before walking through the art installations, pause with Gigi at 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm for a yoga nidra (yogic sleep) to prepare you for your walks. The yoga nidra sessions are meditative experiences that can be done lying down or sitting in a chair. Cushions, blankets, chairs, and more will be provided in the portal.
Caryl Henry Alexander facilitated the Gallery Art walk/Art talk.
Saturday, Gallery Art Walk
Passed on the flame to young artist "Z" during the AIR.
On Friday, June 16, join the artists for an Artist Reception, Gallery Walk, and Artist Panel. This evening on the land, you will meet the artists, hear the stories andWorkpiration behind their work, and experience the installations. Enjoy delicious gourmet pizza and drinks during the reception.
Art Installations and Community Art Project, guests took self-directed walks on the trails at Junipers Garden and experienced the nature-based art installations designed by the artists in residence.
Food Vendors
Green Things Work will offer a plant-based loaded nacho bar, chlorophyll lemonade, seasonal fruit cups, and popsicles. Vonte's Kitchen will offer Grilled Chicken Wings, Crab Cake sandwiches, and Beer Brisket sandwiches with Mac & Cheese or Fried Rice.
Enjoy live music from the DC-based music collective Too Much Talent Band, with one purpose, Make Good Music.
Fire Spinners We experienced an exciting show from fire spinners Umber and Ember.
We celebrated the summer solstice with a massive bonfire, great music, and dancing. Planning is underway for June 21st, 2024 Summer Solstice.
Folks sat around the fire and watched the flames.
On-site Camping-site was only available on Saturday, June 17.
Several campers spent the night in the woods at Junipers Garden and woke up on "The Land."
Thank you for all the work that was invested into this project. It is the beginning of a more extensive conversation.
Sage as a Spiritual Tool
Although burning sage is used by healers and laypeople in traditional cultures to achieve a healing state or solve or meditate on spiritual difficulties, this practice could also have a scientific basis—certain types of sage are best for smudging for cleansing and spiritual purposes, like white prairie sage contain thujone, which is somewhat psychotropic and present in a variety of plants used in cultural, spiritual rituals to boost intuition.
