Who is aviva gold?
Aviva gold, art medicine woman
Aviva Gold MFA, MPS, CSW, ATR-BC, REAT, and Art Medicine Woman discovered the enchanted bliss and healing in nature and art as a lonely child. Thus began a lifetime of guidance from the muses found in art and nature. Aviva graduated from Syracuse University with a BFA in Art Education and Painting in 1962, taught art to children in Brooklyn and Spanish Harlem, New York City, received a Masters in Painting from Pratt Institute, was Mom to three sons, wife to a young doctor, and a natural childbirth and lactation coach, and she painted, exhibited and taught drawing and art history at New Mexico State University… all in what she sees as her “first” life.
In 1974 Aviva entered her “second life” (post-divorce), receiving a Masters in Art Therapy and Dance from Pratt Institute, practiced art therapy in various school and hospital settings in NYC, completed Psychoanalytic Training, taught Dream Interpretation and other mental health topics in Adult Ed in NYC colleges, developed a Teenage Pregnancy Program, became a public speaker for Brooklyn Counseling Clinic, received a 3rd masters and Certification in Clinical Social Work and began her 40 year psychotherapy practice.
In 1988, Aviva’s “third life “began with her move to the woods in New York’s Hudson Valley. She deepened her spiritual search, practicing Yoga, meditation, holotropic breathwork and dream work, among other modalities. At this time, Aviva developed and began facilitating “Painting From the Source” workshops in her home center and centers worldwide such as Kripalu, Omega, Esalen, Findhorn Foundation, the Greek islands, France, Italy, England, New Zealand, and the Caribbean. Study with shamans, pilgrimages to Bali, trekking, and yoga in Nepal, completing a Gestalt Therapy Training, deeper studies in Jungian Analysis, mythology, astrology, and Native American traditions occupied this era of her life as well.
Aviva’s “fourth life” began in 1998, with The publication of her book by Harper Collins, Painting From The Source: Awakening the Artist’s Soul In Everyone, distributed in US and United Kingdom.
At this time she was extensively interviewed in the media such as New Age Magazine and NBC TV, co-founded the nonprofit,Creative Passage (2000), became immersed in study of addiction and 12-step programs from a spiritual perspective, developed a teacher training manual for “Painting From the Source” and launched her first of three successful in-depth “Painting From The Source” teacher trainings. She also produced her instructional video and DVD, turned her home in the woods into a mini-workshop space accommodating 13 painters for weekend workshops and led seminars for business leaders in creative problem solving and accessing intuition through art and journaling.
Aviva’s “fifth” life begins with her move to Ojai, CA in 2005. This includes deepening her spiritual practice, the study of ecology, systems theory, study with Joanna Macy, developing eco-awareness art experiences, including ecstatic dance in her workshops, and planning workshops in new international locations such as Dubai. A fourth and fifth teacher training and an additional digital interactive and paperback adjunct for her 1998 book which addresses the planetary need for healing with creativity, called Source Art In the World, were among Aviva’s’ activities …all culminating in the resurfacing, after a 13-year gestation, of the nonprofit Creative Passage, an art eco-retreat for individual, community and planetary re-enchantment. During this time Aviva with the help of newly formed advisors created a website for Creative Passage, rededicated the mission to realize the enchanted bliss and healing in nature and art for a better world and tried unsuccessfully to find and raise money for a Creative Passage center in Ojai, CA.
Currently, Aviva is planning a 2ed retreat in Switzerland, just completed her 6th Teacher Training in Iceland, a new updated website with improved books and prints of her paintings for sale, the debut of a documentary film,” Paths Of Life”, in which she is one of 4 innovative protagonists. Trailer. Aviva is getting familiar with the Tucson, Az community, and reestablishing her not for profit, Creative Passage in Arizona., www.creativepassage.org … plus wanting to interest a movie producer in her movie idea to balance the masculine / feminine divide. Plus book just published in German. That’s a lot and only Aviva’s 6th life.
WHAT DOES AVIVA GOLD DO?
Gifted as an 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. She has traveled widely, influencing many nationally and around the world. Her workshops and lectures on the innovative method she calls “Painting From The Source,” draw 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. Aviva has worked with both deeply troubled individuals daring to look inward for the first time, to
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
As the 1998 publication of 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; Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California; Kripalu, Lenox, Massachusetts; Common Boundary Conference, Washington D.C.; Synergia Ranch, Santa Fe, New Mexico (where she conducted extended workshops on a regular schedule); Mana Retreat Center, New Zealand; St Tropez, France; Findhorn Eco Village, Scotland,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, and Schloss Glarisegg, Switzerland. From 1989 to 2006, Aviva Regularly held retreats and Teacher Training at her own creative arts center in New York. She currently holds retreats in her home center in Oracle, Arizona.
In 2011, Aviva Gold wrote her sequel to “Painting From The Source: Awakening The Artist’ Soul In Everyone” , Source Art In The World, which is actually her manifesto. .. the “Reason For Her Being”.
WHERE AVIVA FACILITATES
Aviva leads Painting from the Source workshops both nationally and internationally within the following forums:
- Workshops at alternative educational centers, sacred sites worldwide, and by invitation;
- PFTS Teacher Training for prospective PFTS Practitioners. Rooted in love and mutual support, individual leadership and a teaching style emerge while learning how to help others connect with their truth through creative expression;
- Corporate seminars to facilitate the intuitive process for problem-solving, team-building, stress-reduction, decision-making with integrity; and
- Individual and group consultations for
creative breakthroughs. - Workshops and retreat at Home. Studio in Oracle Arizona
CREATIVE PASSAGE
Aviva is a
This One
By George Herrick
(Poem 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
mixing and stirring and stewing
in a cauldron womb
til someone’s ready-
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.
First born, sweet, innocent and loving …but watch out world. Soon to discover, she was born into a time and place where the wealth, freedom and respect given to her brothers was not to be hers…Where dark-skinned people do not have the same wealth, freedom and respect as light-skinned. She remembers when she was a man. She remembers when she was black. She remembers when she was a wild one close to the earth. She never forgot. Memory of her other lives makes her an artist, mandates her outspokenness to the status quo. May we all be so.
Every human being is an artist. As adults we can recreate the boundless joy of unself-conscious art by setting aside intellectual critique and self-doubt and reconnect with ‘the Source.’ the spiritual center others may call instinct or soul.”
