Ensemble

Joan Forest Mage is a shamanic artist, healer and teacher based in Chicago. She founded Life Force Arts Ensemble (LFAE) in 1988, and has curated LFAE’s 39 art exhibits. Joan created the Life Force Arts Method, which uses the arts for spiritual healing, and is the basis for all the work of LFAE. A Certified Movement Analyst (Laban Institute, NYC), Joan has over fifty years of experience as a dancer, vocalist and director, including three music albums and 45 years of teaching dance, yoga and fitness. Joan received a Master of Arts Degree from De Paul University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, with the focus area “Creating Healing Ritual Through the Arts.” First awakened to energy work through her profound experience of the energy of music and dance, Joan began doing shamanic healing in 1995 and created the extensive Life Force Arts Shamanic Training program. She has studied shamanism and healing ritual with numerous teachers. Joan specializes in “training trainers”: artists, teachers and healers who want to develop the spiritual dimension of their professional work.

As she trained for years in various artistic disciplines, while also juggling motherhood, it became very clear to her that making art and expressing who she is through movement, dance, music, art and theatre was not only something she loved to do, it was something necessary to do for her physical, mental/emotional and spiritual well-being and that of her children. This launched her to explore the integration of the arts with the healing arts, shamanism, sound healing and yoga in more depth.

Then Life Force Arts Center opened its doors to Natalja and gave her a home and a community to continue to develop and share her gifts. Performing, collaborating and making others feel comfortable in their own skin is her passion and being a member of Life Force Arts Ensemble means doing all three.Natalja’s dream is to help people retrieve their unique gifts and build a safe and free world where all voices matter and respect each other, using all the artistic and healing tools in her toolbox. After all, isn’t it true, when we all live our dreams, our hearts are at peace and our minds are put to good use for the highest good of all? You can catch her in shows, leading classes and workshops or doing creative healing sessions. You can follow her on instagram@nataljatheselkie.

Mary Burton (B.A., SUNY Albany; M.F.A., School of the Art Institute of Chicago) the child of diverse parents (Northern European and Russian Jewish) grew up on a farm in upstate New York where she was blessed to be immersed in the beauty of nature and life forms. Observations of light and dark, trees, the seasons and natural phenomena as well as an ongoing quest for meaning inspired explorations of form and line in drawing, printmaking, painting, videography and video image processing. She has exhibited with the Chicago Artists Month, School of the Art Institute BareWalls, School of the Art Institute Fellowship Exhibition and others. A lifelong searcher and student of mysticism and spiritual sciences, her studies include comparative religion, mysticism, symbolism, yoga philosophy, spiritual astrology at the Temple of Kriya Yoga, A Course in Miracles at Unity Church in Chicago, music studies at Old Town School of Folk Music and New Tuners music theater workshop under John Sparks, as well as working for the Urantia Foundation. Mary is a graduate of the Life Force Arts Shamanic Training program. Mary’s family has been in what is now the U.S. since the 1600’s. Her ancestor, Mary Bliss Parsons, was accused and acquitted twice for witchcraft in Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts. marybearart.com

James Cornolo has been playing guitar and percussion with LFAE since 1999. He has been active in the Chicago music scene for several decades in a wide variety of settings including accompanying for modern dance classes and performing in the styles of jazz, classical, and Latin jazz, notably with the Cuban singer Angel d’Cuba. He has a masters degree in guitar pedagogy from Northeastern Illinois University.

Kurt Fondriest is an expressive arts therapist at Misericordia home in Chicago, where he has worked for almost 30 years. He is an ordained nondenominational minister and certified pastoral counselor, holding a PhD in Holistic Ministries. His work is based on his life with a chronic pain condition called fibromyalgia. Dr. Kurt sees life as a ministry, a way of expressing one’s spiritual connection to others. One of the greatest gifts our creator gives us is the power to love unconditionally; it is through this gift we find ourselves and our work. Let us always remember to not keep the gift of unconditional love but to share this divine blessing with all. facebook.com/Healing-Seed-Expressive-Arts-Ministries

I graduated from Ray Vogue School of Design, Chicago for Illustration and worked for a number of years as a full time graphic designer, including being the graphic designer for Life Force Arts Ensemble. Surreal worlds coming to my consciousness during sleep, daydreaming, yoga and living. My art is energy art reflecting positive and uplifting inner visions. In the landscape of my mind spin worlds unseen by the human eye. My goal is to spread light and joy in the images I draw and paint. I have co-created with my business partner Lisa Gniady a number of meditation tools including: a 45-card Soul Reflection Inspirational Oracle Card Deck, Clarity of Life Cards, Believe-In Affirmation Cards, Lemurian Code Activation Cards and my newest co-creation the Inner Child Meditation Cards with intuitive life coach, Sonia Prado and Lisa Gniady. GatheringVisions.com • www.etsy.com/shop/LearntobeHappy

Prongs Apollo Chapa is a poet, priesten and scholar of textually and archaeologically supported pagan practice, who lives and writes in Chicago. Healing through obscure facts and poetry, they are a member of Life Force Arts Ensemble and priesten-in-training with the Fellowship of Isis Chicago Chapter. Prongs has written and performed in 20 unique LFAE performances and hopes to do many more! Look for their first book of poetry to be published in 2022.