Chakra Mural
Donation protected
The Kaleidoscope Mural Project aims to fund seven local artists in the painting of an inspirational and meaningful mural alongside Crown Mountain Road. Heading north this road peaks at Estate Crown and Hawk. An iconic and festive peach wall stretches along the left shoulder, beyond which one can catch glimpses of the Crown and Hawk Botanical Gardens. As you descend the mountain this wall continues, yet unpainted and unkempt. There is a sharp bend to the right where a disheveled structure lies behind the wall, abandoned since Marilyn took its roof in 1995. The wall continues north until it reaches the small farm and B&B known as “Shangri La”, recognizable by its green and red Japanese Torii and Moon gates and historic stone wall ponds. The Kaleidoscope Mural is proposed to be painted on this seven-partitioned retaining wall between the Botanical Gardens and Shangri La.
The design envisions using the seven partitions of the wall to represent the seven chakras of ancient Buddhist and Hindu traditions. For millennia, these cultures have understood all life forms to consist of a physical, tangible body as well as a spiritual, “subtle” body. The subtle body has energetic channels called “nadi” which are lynch pinned through the seven “chakras”. Chakra means “wheel”, and each one is an energetic powerhouse that propels the nadi, creating and sustaining life. Various meditation and yogic practices focus on advancing divine feminine energy “shakti” from the root chakra at the base of the spine towards divine masculine energy “shiva” in the crown chakra above one’s head. Shakti is represented metaphorically as a snake that will uncoil and stretch the full length of the spine, passing through each chakra, ultimately uniting with shiva as one. When this union of feminine and masculine is achieved, there is a transformation in consciousness resulting in a spiritual liberation known as “kundalini” enlightenment.
Each of the seven chakras has a unique symbol, location, name and role, and each is associated with a specific color of the rainbow (ROYGBIV), musical note (C through B) and flower with a certain number of petals. The lowest wall partition would represent the root chakra and have a red background. The four-petaled “muladhara” chakra would be painted prominently in the center of this first partition of the wall. Its name, in Sanskrit, would be written within the pistil of the flower, and other associated symbols of this chakra would be intermixed at the artist’s discretion. And so it will go, ascending the mountain, through the chakras, one by one, mirroring the journey of spiritual ascent. At the midpoint, the heart chakra “anahata” coincides with the entrance to the property, symbolizing the gateway to heart opening. This twelve-petaled lotus has two intersecting triangles at its core representing the union of male and female and is the chakra of balance, union, serenity and love.
After a call to artists the following artists were chosen for each of the following chakras:
1. Iréne Debrice, Root Chakra: physical identity, stability, grounding
During the day, Iréne works as a public health scientist. At any other time, she can be found guiding others through web and graphic design, transformational art, and art meditations. Her scientific career has given her the opportunity to work internationally with diverse populations and clients. She’s had the great honor of being part of the 7th volume and 1st Spanish Edition of the biannual journal, Life as Ceremony, where her illustrations conceptualized intersectional identity and gender fluidity, and decolonized self-care, respectively. Her body of work and offerings can be found at puraprana.com. Iréne is also a board member at seven-minus-seven (Alternative Art Alliance), where she enjoys applying her technical and creative skills to give back to her community.
2. Marcel Ferreyra, Sacral Chakra: sexuality, pleasure, creativity
Originally from Argentina, Marcela Ferreyra moved to St Thomas with her family in 1989. While not a professional artist, she was raised surround by artists. She participated the VI School of Visual Arts and Careers program during her high school years. Today you can always find her dabbling in something creative in her spare time.
3. Nathan Visel, Solar Plexus Chakra: self-esteem, confidence
Nathan was born in southeast Louisiana. He now lives on St John where he enjoys poetry, art and the small mindfulness community. He has so far only sent an early concept sketch of the flower itself. The Manipura chakra embodies the Sun's energy and fire, which can be translated to City of Jewels or Jewel City. He was originally toying with the idea of doing a whole cityscape in bright fire oranges and reds but has doubts that a mural that detailed could be accomplished over a weekend. Instead he is thinking of making a very ornate Lotus that captures some of the Sun itself that will be mortared in relief from the wall with pieces of mirror and yellow stones imbedded in it.
4. Diane Holmberg, Heart Chakra: love, compassion
Diane has been an art teacher at the Antilles School for 25 years. In the late 90’s, she ran Eco Art Camp at Magens Bay for four years. Her vision of this partition includes a mermaid in fish pose with her tail towards gate, and her heart bursting from her chest. On the right side will be foliage, and on the left side will be ocean water with the chakra symbol between the land and sea over the mermaid’s tail area. The colors will be similar to below with all green hues and gold accents.
5. Amy Gibbs, Throat Chakra: communication
Amy is a prolific artist with a career spanning decades. She is a painter and printmaker working in St. Thomas, USVI. Continuously creating, experimenting, and learning, Amy’s stellar works are treasured by collectors, artists, and admirers all over the world. Amy has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the U.S. and has also exhibited in St. Thomas, Linz, Warsaw, Prague, and Berlin. In 2013, Amy started Art Uncorked in Tillett Gardens in St. Thomas, USVI. Amy’s aim with this project is to communicate the importance of the throat chakra, in finding one’s own voice, one’s own truth, not just in communication with one another and ourselves, but to the universe as a whole.
6. Sarah-Ann Mitchell, Third Eye Chakra: intuition, imagination
Sarah is a local Virgin Islander living on St. Thomas and is an artist of the African diaspora. She is using her perspective to explore the social-political landscape that she resides in as well as reflecting on the social-political landscape present during the living, breathing history of the African diaspora. She seeks to provoke discussion through her works and to encourage honest discourse about the cultural evolution that took place from slavery through to liberation and beyond. Her artistic trademark name is The Black Sparrow.
7. Sylvie Reis, Crown Chakra: awareness, intelligence
Sylvie resides on Water Island and produces her artwork through the platforms STUDIO OCEAN ART REIS, SV Maitre D and REIS_CYCLE. She has over 55 years of artist experience and paints, draws, sculpts and does ceramic arts.
The name “Kaleidoscope” was inspired by a section of June Wilcoxon Brown’s book Inside American Paradise where she explains that in the 1960’s former resident Nat Norris coined this area of Crown and Hawk “Kaleidoscope”. Norris defined the word kaleidoscope as “beautiful views with ever-changing colors”, so the name of this project both honors this history and is fitting for the design, intent and location of the mural.
Thank you for your consideration of this project. I acquired clear title to this property in September 2020 after several years of patience, probate and prayer. Since owning the property, I have coordinated extensive repairs to the masonry of the wall, followed by pressure washing and priming it in preparation for painting this mural. Passersby have stopped regularly to encourage our progress, inquire about the project, and offer their help. These passersby are the inspiration to turn this mural project into a community event. Ultimately, we plan to turn the abandoned building at the center of the property into an open-aired atrium where we can sell fresh produce and host healing and community events. This space will be called “Kaleidoscope”.
The design envisions using the seven partitions of the wall to represent the seven chakras of ancient Buddhist and Hindu traditions. For millennia, these cultures have understood all life forms to consist of a physical, tangible body as well as a spiritual, “subtle” body. The subtle body has energetic channels called “nadi” which are lynch pinned through the seven “chakras”. Chakra means “wheel”, and each one is an energetic powerhouse that propels the nadi, creating and sustaining life. Various meditation and yogic practices focus on advancing divine feminine energy “shakti” from the root chakra at the base of the spine towards divine masculine energy “shiva” in the crown chakra above one’s head. Shakti is represented metaphorically as a snake that will uncoil and stretch the full length of the spine, passing through each chakra, ultimately uniting with shiva as one. When this union of feminine and masculine is achieved, there is a transformation in consciousness resulting in a spiritual liberation known as “kundalini” enlightenment.
Each of the seven chakras has a unique symbol, location, name and role, and each is associated with a specific color of the rainbow (ROYGBIV), musical note (C through B) and flower with a certain number of petals. The lowest wall partition would represent the root chakra and have a red background. The four-petaled “muladhara” chakra would be painted prominently in the center of this first partition of the wall. Its name, in Sanskrit, would be written within the pistil of the flower, and other associated symbols of this chakra would be intermixed at the artist’s discretion. And so it will go, ascending the mountain, through the chakras, one by one, mirroring the journey of spiritual ascent. At the midpoint, the heart chakra “anahata” coincides with the entrance to the property, symbolizing the gateway to heart opening. This twelve-petaled lotus has two intersecting triangles at its core representing the union of male and female and is the chakra of balance, union, serenity and love.
After a call to artists the following artists were chosen for each of the following chakras:
1. Iréne Debrice, Root Chakra: physical identity, stability, grounding
During the day, Iréne works as a public health scientist. At any other time, she can be found guiding others through web and graphic design, transformational art, and art meditations. Her scientific career has given her the opportunity to work internationally with diverse populations and clients. She’s had the great honor of being part of the 7th volume and 1st Spanish Edition of the biannual journal, Life as Ceremony, where her illustrations conceptualized intersectional identity and gender fluidity, and decolonized self-care, respectively. Her body of work and offerings can be found at puraprana.com. Iréne is also a board member at seven-minus-seven (Alternative Art Alliance), where she enjoys applying her technical and creative skills to give back to her community.
2. Marcel Ferreyra, Sacral Chakra: sexuality, pleasure, creativity
Originally from Argentina, Marcela Ferreyra moved to St Thomas with her family in 1989. While not a professional artist, she was raised surround by artists. She participated the VI School of Visual Arts and Careers program during her high school years. Today you can always find her dabbling in something creative in her spare time.
3. Nathan Visel, Solar Plexus Chakra: self-esteem, confidence
Nathan was born in southeast Louisiana. He now lives on St John where he enjoys poetry, art and the small mindfulness community. He has so far only sent an early concept sketch of the flower itself. The Manipura chakra embodies the Sun's energy and fire, which can be translated to City of Jewels or Jewel City. He was originally toying with the idea of doing a whole cityscape in bright fire oranges and reds but has doubts that a mural that detailed could be accomplished over a weekend. Instead he is thinking of making a very ornate Lotus that captures some of the Sun itself that will be mortared in relief from the wall with pieces of mirror and yellow stones imbedded in it.
4. Diane Holmberg, Heart Chakra: love, compassion
Diane has been an art teacher at the Antilles School for 25 years. In the late 90’s, she ran Eco Art Camp at Magens Bay for four years. Her vision of this partition includes a mermaid in fish pose with her tail towards gate, and her heart bursting from her chest. On the right side will be foliage, and on the left side will be ocean water with the chakra symbol between the land and sea over the mermaid’s tail area. The colors will be similar to below with all green hues and gold accents.
5. Amy Gibbs, Throat Chakra: communication
Amy is a prolific artist with a career spanning decades. She is a painter and printmaker working in St. Thomas, USVI. Continuously creating, experimenting, and learning, Amy’s stellar works are treasured by collectors, artists, and admirers all over the world. Amy has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the U.S. and has also exhibited in St. Thomas, Linz, Warsaw, Prague, and Berlin. In 2013, Amy started Art Uncorked in Tillett Gardens in St. Thomas, USVI. Amy’s aim with this project is to communicate the importance of the throat chakra, in finding one’s own voice, one’s own truth, not just in communication with one another and ourselves, but to the universe as a whole.
6. Sarah-Ann Mitchell, Third Eye Chakra: intuition, imagination
Sarah is a local Virgin Islander living on St. Thomas and is an artist of the African diaspora. She is using her perspective to explore the social-political landscape that she resides in as well as reflecting on the social-political landscape present during the living, breathing history of the African diaspora. She seeks to provoke discussion through her works and to encourage honest discourse about the cultural evolution that took place from slavery through to liberation and beyond. Her artistic trademark name is The Black Sparrow.
7. Sylvie Reis, Crown Chakra: awareness, intelligence
Sylvie resides on Water Island and produces her artwork through the platforms STUDIO OCEAN ART REIS, SV Maitre D and REIS_CYCLE. She has over 55 years of artist experience and paints, draws, sculpts and does ceramic arts.
The name “Kaleidoscope” was inspired by a section of June Wilcoxon Brown’s book Inside American Paradise where she explains that in the 1960’s former resident Nat Norris coined this area of Crown and Hawk “Kaleidoscope”. Norris defined the word kaleidoscope as “beautiful views with ever-changing colors”, so the name of this project both honors this history and is fitting for the design, intent and location of the mural.
Thank you for your consideration of this project. I acquired clear title to this property in September 2020 after several years of patience, probate and prayer. Since owning the property, I have coordinated extensive repairs to the masonry of the wall, followed by pressure washing and priming it in preparation for painting this mural. Passersby have stopped regularly to encourage our progress, inquire about the project, and offer their help. These passersby are the inspiration to turn this mural project into a community event. Ultimately, we plan to turn the abandoned building at the center of the property into an open-aired atrium where we can sell fresh produce and host healing and community events. This space will be called “Kaleidoscope”.
Organizer
Shangri La VI
Organizer
Anna's Retreat, United States Virgin Islands
