Visionary Experiences and Ayahuasca Art
By Maureen Walsh
My journey with Ayahuasca and the influence that the plants have had on my work as a visual artist and my life have been profound. I attended art school at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, and graduated with a bachelor's in fine arts in fibers (textiles). I moved to Brooklyn, NYC, directly after graduating college, and after a couple of years working many side hustle jobs, a fellow SCAD graduate and I started our own art and design fabrication business.
Although our business was thriving, I personally felt stuck as an artist and didn’t create any of my own work outside of the business. My art practice was nonexistent. It wasn’t until I started sitting with Ayahuasca, some years after leaving NYC, that my personal practice of art really unfolded and took off.
I attribute my success and confidence as an artist not only to the years that I spent in art school and working in the field in NYC but, most importantly, to Ayahuasca. It wasn’t until I started sitting with the plants on a regular basis that I saw and felt the flow of my work expand.
Through integrating a lot of different healing and insights from ceremony, I was able to translate the visions that I saw into reality. Ayahuasca has also helped me to get out of my logical mind, which had always stopped me from finishing anything or experimenting with new ideas, and into the flow of creation, into the flow of my heart.
Unlocking the Artist Within: Ayahuasca's Creative Catalyst
Unlocking the Artist Within: Ayahuasca's Creative Catalyst
I find that creating art after ceremony helps me to integrate the work and the healing that took place on an extremely deep level. It also helps me to recall pieces of the night that I may have forgotten, which again allows for a very solid and fun integration. The visual images that I see in ceremony can be quite amazing, and it’s always a joy to bring them down from my third eye onto a canvas, textile, or wall. Many of my clients and friends had never considered the possibility of being an artist until after sitting in ceremony with the medicine. Even the word artist itself has a loaded meaning for many. After working with Ayahuasca and exploring different parts of themselves, many of my clients and friends have been extremely surprised by their own results. Ayahuasca has helped in allowing them to play around and explore. A lot of people that I know have even remembered long-buried dreams of wanting to be an artist as a child. I truly believe that we are all artists, and we all have the access and ability to tap into the source of creation and make art. Sitting in ceremony has confirmed this for me over the years. Ayahuasca has helped me and many of my friends and clients get out of our own way and create.
Ayahuasca's Gift of Music and Healing
Visionary art comes in all forms, from painting to textiles, to sound and music. I have always loved music and dabbled with instruments when I was younger but nothing ever stuck. It wasn’t until after I sat with Ayahuasca for the first time that I actually dedicated myself to playing music and singing. I was terrified to sing for the first few years that I sat in ceremony but as time has passed, it’s become one of my favorite things to do. I have also dedicated myself to playing several instruments, and music has become a part of who I am… all thanks to Ayahuasca. In a lot of the clients that I see, I receive a message of the importance of activating the voice and the throat chakra. Many people can access the visionary channel of song during ceremony, and it’s truly a form of art. When this channel is activated, it opens up a whole new realm of magic and beauty, and the song can also be extremely healing.
The Shamanic Artistry of the Shipibo-Conibo Tribe
I find it fascinating that many visionary artists are also very powerful healers. The original masters of this weaving of art and healing are the Shipibo-Conibo tribe. Their intricate and powerful kene art is not only beautiful, but carries deep healing and profound wisdom. You can find this art for sale all over Peru, and many fair trade shops online also sell different items, including textiles. The ancient technology of healing that comes from the Shipibo-Conibo tribe has been a strong catalyst for my own transformation as well as for many of the people that I work with.
It is fascinating how this tribe has been able to translate energy and the vibrations and healing energetics of sound into incredible art. This has been a catalyst and an inspiration in my own work. It has allowed me to see the magical thread between art and healing, and it continues to blow my mind. In my own work as a visionary cranio-sacral therapist, the training and the visions that I receive and witness during ceremony inform my work, and vice versa, the healing work that I do informs my art. I consciously infuse my work with the reverence and healing that I feel in ceremony and in healing sessions.
Embarking on a Transformational Journey with Don Moises Llerena and The PMP Team
Another really powerful example of embodiment of this magical thread that weaves healing and art together is from the incredible visionary artist, musician, and shaman Don Moises Llerena. You can feel the power of his art encoded into the medicine that he serves, infused into his song, and into the healing that he offers in ceremony. I always have very profound and clear visuals when I am in ceremony with him and also when I have drank his medicine (that another shaman served) when he wasn’t even physically present in the room. When I look at his art and listen to his songs, I receive a healing transmission.
He is a powerful medicine man and will be co-leading an Ayahuasca and Visionary Art Retreat along with Kat Courtney in Peru next year. This is such an incredible offering and one not to be missed. To be able to work with a master in this way is a huge gift, especially if you feel the call of the artist within you wanting to rise. Don’t hesitate to sign up! He is also teaching another Ayahuasca Icaros Course that has been a huge success so far. He is a very clear channel, extremely in tune with the plants and their wisdom, and an extremely proficient teacher. Don’t miss out on these incredible opportunities!
Discovering the Legacy of Pablo Amaringo: Ayahuasca's Visual Storyteller
There is also a strong and beautiful tradition of contemporary visionary Ayahuasca painting around the world that I feel stems from the tradition that the Shipibo so powerfully embodies. One of the greatest and most widely recognized visionary artists was Pablo Amaringo. He was a Peruvian medicine man who worked as a shaman from the age of ten. He worked as a healer for countless people over the years and retired in the early 70s to paint full-time and teach art. He co-authored an incredible book, “Ayahuasca Visions,” which I highly recommend checking out. His work is absolutely mesmerizing and really inspiring if you work with the plants, even if you don’t consider yourself an artist. His work has helped me to integrate and remember familiar landscapes that I have also seen during my work in ceremony. His work is super intricate and colorful and always brings me to a place of reverence and transports me back into the ceremonial space. You can also check out his virtual visionary art gallery on his website, linked above.
More Visionary Artists to Discover
Some of my other favorite contemporary visionary artists include Alex Grey, Chris Dyer, and Isabel Mariposa Galactic. I was first introduced to Alex Grey by my visionary cranio sacral teacher many years ago. His work is very deep and encoded with memory. He has an incredible place called Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in upstate New York that I highly recommend checking out. He is a champion of visionary and conscious art, and I have found many amazing artists through his channels. I found out about Peruvian artist Chris Dyer through one of Alex Grey’s posts, and I have been following him for quite some time. He is very inspiring as a person and as an artist and often talks about his own journeys with Ayahuasca and other sacred plant medicines. He does a lot of street art and public murals, which has been inspiring for my own work as a muralist. Isabel Mariposa Galactic’s work is extremely expansive and encoded with light. She has done some illustrations for the oracle deck Earth Warriors by Alana Fairchild, which has been a helpful tool in my own journey of growth. Isabel’s work carries the vibrations of healing and some of the ancient traditions that I often tap into when I’m working with Ayahuasca.
Unlocking Your Creative Potential
The influence of Ayahuasca art in my life has been extremely transformative and has opened up many opportunities and doorways for me. As I mentioned earlier, I really believe that we are all artists at the core, and a good way to start to explore this is to simply look at different contemporary and traditional visionary art and tune in to see what wakes up within you. I believe that just viewing art can start to unlock things within and help you to open up to your own form of artistic expression. I often recommend to my clients to keep a journal and some markers next to them while they meditate, and then once you finish, and you’re in a flow state, take a pen or maker to paper and let yourself explore without censoring. Small steps like this can lead to great expansion. Wishing everyone lots of color and vision on their journey!
About the Author
Maureen Walsh is an international artist, healer, teacher, and profound friend of Plant Medicines. She has been professionally practicing the healing arts for the last eight years and has been studying yoga and meditation for the last two decades. She is trained in visionary and biodynamic craniosacral therapy and has spent many years studying with master plants around the world. Her connection to the astral realms and her background as an artist are deeply woven into her sessions. She has many years of experience with ceremonial medicines too, and she loves working as a guide before and after ceremony to help her clients prepare and integrate this incredible work.
