Desiree DeMars

Love to travel, explore and create! Interested in Shamanic Healing, art and alternative community....read my bio & artist statement: Desiree DeMars was born in Chicago and began expressing herself through the arts in early childhood through drawing, dancing and singing. She studied jewelry making, painting, drawing and photography in her teens and received a scholarship to an Canadian environmental studies program created and run by the international award winning nature photographer and environmentalist Charles Erickson. Through this experience she was profoundly inspired by the beauty and power of nature and the idea that creativity is a means by which we are in direct relationship with the supernatural world. Desiree worked professionally as a graphic designer for 15 years and earned a double BA in Psychology/Communication Arts from Columbia College Chicago in 2000. For the last 10 years she has been working with mixed media/collage and fabric design. Currently she works with encaustics, cold wax and oils and resides in Asheville, NC. A R T I S T’ S S T A T E M E N T After a life transforming experience in the Canadian wilderness as a teenager, the idea of interdependency has guided my life path as a spiritual teacher and Shamanic healer as well as in my creative works. As far back as I can remember my work has been about co-creating or creating from a place that sees all that I do as if it were a living art form. I designed and built a self-sufficient homestead in the early 70’s, as a shared dream with other artist’s in a small community, and began traveling to explore the spiritual practices of Yoga masters and native Shamans around the world. Inspired by people who honored and communicated with plants, animals and the Spirit of the land, my intention as an artist is to tap into the essence of life’s energetic flow in a way that allows me to shift into an expanded state of awareness and create images that spark a remembrance of our direct connection to our higher wisdom and our part of the greater order of the cosmos. I have found through my exploration of encaustics (Greek: enkaustikos; to heat or to burn) that the texture of the beeswax is so deliciously sensual and the addition of the damar (tree resin), which serves to preserve and solidify the medium, allows the pieces to capture light in an almost mystical way. The aroma of the beeswax triggers personal memories of raising bees and life lived in harmony with nature. I also believe that there is energetic information passed on through the healing qualities of the beeswax, the practices of the ancient Bee Shaman and their understanding of, what I call, the Primordial Template that connects us all to the grace, beauty and joy of life!