This One - inspired by Aviva Gold This one gets you by surprise. Her magic wands of sable brush, her liquid rainbows ready, awaiting to splash on to portable skies- This one's different. We've all seen some, the crones and witches whose bones and switches cast sprites and spells like dust devils in the desert. Their abracadabra's turning lead to gold and princes to toads, a potion here or lotion there, their scare stands hair straight in the air -- but this one's different. This one casts visions, leaving spells to the blind wise, visions formed of shadows and blood, of dreams and long-subconscious legends, grinding ingredients with a mortar and pestle of vagina and penis, mixing and stirring and stewing in a cauldron womb til someone's ready- midwifed into birth from humid peat of shadow into vision, rich and fertile, prepared at last To transform their destroyers into redeemers. This one's mystery, Kali-esque serpent owl, bringing beauty from the bowel channel for the source. This one's different. This one's visceral. She gets you by surprise. George Herrick PFTS Student and CO-Teacher

About Aviva:

Biography of an Art Medicine Woman

Aviva Gold MFA, MPS, CSW, ATR-BC, REAT, calls herself a painting witch. And like most witches throughout history, Aviva is steeped in the womanly art of midwifery. Why a witch? Because she is intimately conversant with the mysteries and magic that underlie everyday reality, and with the alchemy that taps into them to bring healing and integration. Why a midwife? Because she is a skilled guide to those on the path to the deepest truth and the complex process of spiritual evolution. This dual personae is the medium Aviva uses to make her teaching unique and uniquely powerful: painting is her channel to the truth.

Abundantly gifted as a professional, widely exhibited artist, teacher, group leader, and public speaker, Aviva Gold has evolved from art therapist/teacher and psychotherapist in private practice into a spiritual guide through painting. Whose reputation precedes her nationally and around the world. Her workshops and lectures on the innovative method she calls "Painting From The Source," draws seekers of every stripe, from beginners who have never before dared to put brush to paper: to experienced professional artists with their own worldwide reputations; neophytes on the evolutionary path who are just beginning their explorations to highly evolved spiritual seekers, fully aware of the myriad paths to the source. From deeply troubled individuals daring to look inward for the first time to integrated students at home in their evolving selves. Notable among Aviva's characteristics as a teacher and guide is her ability to reach the full range of students who come to her workshops and presentations. The diversity of her students is one of the most wonderful aspects of her work.

As her book, Painting From the Source: Awakening the Artist's Soul in Everyone (HarperCollins) and her work demonstrate, Aviva's message that painting can be a conduit to humankind's most profound wisdom- has messianic quality: one hears it and begins to nod in agreement. For this reason, Aviva has spent much of her professional life seeking out and welcoming opportunities to describe the principles and method of Painting from the Source. She has presented her message, through lectures and workshops, in many personal growth centers throughout the world. These include workshops at Interface, Boston, Massachusetts; Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, New York; Kripalu, Lenox, Massachusetts; Common Boundary Conference, Washington D.C.; Synergia Ranch, Santa Fe, New Mexico (where she conducts extended workshops on a regular schedule); Knowledge Network, Albany, New York; Wainwright House, Rye, New York; Leading Edge Seminars, Asheville, North Carolina; Atsitsa, Skyros Island, Greece; Center for Harmonious Living, Athens, Greece; Open Center, New York City; Sedona Fellowship Center, Sedona, Arizona; Rowe Conference Center, Rowe, Massachusetts. Beginning in 1996, and at regular intervals Aviva has retreats at her own creative arts center, in Spencertown, New York.

Aviva's academic background has led her to serve as a lecturer on aspects of creative and emotional development at the New Hope Guild Mental Health Clinic, Brooklyn, New York, from 1986 through 1991, and on dream work, the precursor to the Painting from the Source method, in the Continuing Education department of Queens College, Flushing, New York. She has lectured extensively in many other academic venues as well. Besides a long background teaching to children, kindergarten through high school in New York City, she taught painting, drawing and art history at New Mexico State College in 1972, in Alamorgordo, New Mexico. See Aviva's Resume for more.

Aviva has been interviewed extensively on radio, television, and for art periodicals and other publications (for example: Art Times and New Age Journal-Sept.98 issue), and is a highly engaging speaker on her passion, Painting from the Source, for example, on 'Art Beat,' a radio program). She is enthusiastic about participating in the marketing of her book and can bring to bear her years of experience in telling the world her deep and compelling message.

Internationally, Aviva Gold has taught people from all over Europe who have traveled to Atsitsa and a yoga ashram in Greece, and her work there has been widely reported in various European and English publications. She is also included in Transformative Adventures, Vacations and Retreats, an international directory of more than three hundred host organizations assembled by John Benson. Recently, Ms. Gold has been invited to be a presenter at the annual International Conference on the Creative Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Vilnius, Lithuania. Further plans include bringing groups to Costa Rica, Bali, and Nepal, where she has visited and laid the groundwork for these projects. She has participated with an International Group based in Tucson, Arizona, called Visions of Global Unity: Inspired Images from Global Art Project, which matches up artists from around the world who exchange work with one another. In that and other global projects, a DVD depicting Painting from the Source has been received enthusiastically in many countries.

In 2000, Aviva Gold completed her instructional DVD, Painting From The Source, and began her first 2 year Art Medicine Training Program, preparing 16 individuals to teach Painting From The Source.

In answer for our cultures current call for creative openings, Aviva Gold's life work culminates with the release of her book, Painting From the Source: Awakening the Artist's Soul in Everyone (HarperCollins), a national book and media tour, and the article, A Soul's Palette by Paul. Block, in the Sept/Oct. issue of New Age Journal, featuring her book and workshops.

Updated Resume

* MFA- Master of Fine Arts with minor in Dance Therapy, CSW- Certified Clinical Social Worker, ATR-BC- Art Therapist, Registered, Board Certified, REAT- Registered Expressive Arts Therapist, MPS - Masters of Professional Studies in Art Therapy

"Authentic soul touching art comes from a divine place deep within and the ritual of creating and viewing such art is central to the healing of individuals, organizations, communities and the planet." -Aviva Gold