Joyce

I live at Many Forks Retreat Center, a 70-acre farm, and am in the process of creating sacred spaces
including a bunk house, prayer house, little house, labyrinth, spiritual ball diamond walk, and others.
My desire and goal is to offer a place for peace, meditation, and spiritual growth to anyone interested
in expanding their spiritual awareness of self.

Being involved with various spiritual groups and developing my own experience of spirituality has
expanded my creative self to include original vibrational energy paintings. The paintings can be
created on canvas, paper, leather, fabric.

The term "vibrational energy" refers to the type of paintings I create. Through a co-creative process
with Spirit, creating these paintings leads me to experience the energy of the person for whom I am
painting. Through the energy experienced, I am led to use certain colors, brush strokes, and different
mediums such as inks, chalks, and/or pencils, with accents of sacred sand from Chimayo, New Mexico
and other areas, as well as pipe and smudge ashes.

The purpose of each painting varies with the person involved. Each painting is open to interpretation
and is dependant upon the spiritual growth and awareness of the individual.

Dear Reader,
I am honored and grateful to have been given the opportunity for one of my pieces of art to appear on the
cover of Addicted to Certainty. The artwork is a Vibrational Energy Painting. The medium is artist ink on
deer hide, accented with Floridian red sand and pipe ash. The painting is titled,
"I Am Thee, My Journey from the Cultural Cosmology to My Spiritual Cosmology."

The title of this painting expresses my core truth. My journey has been similar to your own.
I had a difficult childhood, lost my first husband after nine years of marriage.
Now I am remarried to a wonderful man. I have four children, three stepchildren, and 13 grandchildren.

I have sought for most of my life to find a way to have peace.
It has also been my path as an artist to create out of both joy and pain.
I believed inspiration came from the tension between these two opposites.
I did not know that profound inspiration could emerge from reality itself.
I assumed for most of my life that what I experienced was real.
It was not until I went through the process that Jack teaches that I finally experienced true reality.

True reality is rooted in my knowing that I exist.
With that as a solid base, I am now able not only to experience
but also to express the deep power that I find in knowings.
I recommend you read this book and go through the experience of finding your core truth.
It has opened my life and set me on paths that were always blocked by me before.

Love,

Joyce Staelgraeve
Artist in residence
Many Forks Retreat Center