Jake Kobrin's Art and Creativity Academy

The work of Jake Kobrin is psychedelic, unusual, dark, beautiful, and elegant. His work seeks to illuminate experiences which Jake has had that are outside of the realm of normal waking consciousness, moving into numinous and visionary realms with natural ease. His work explores the interplay of shadow and light, both in the delicate modelling of the forms of his pictures but also in the character of the subjects he portrays, his work showing a willingness to embrace all aspects of emotion from revelation and peace, to fear and disharmony. He considers himself an "interdimensional midwife and conduit" believing that the role of the artist is to be able to move outside of themselves and to act as a conduit for higher consciousness to move through them. In this way he says, "I do not claim authorship for any of the works of art I have painted. I am a channel for Great Spirit to create through me." He currently lives in Ubud, Bali and he grew up in San Francisco. He is one of the few psychedelic artists with a formal classical art education, having studied classical realist drawing and painting in Florence, Italy at the Angel Academy of Art. He is also a tattoo artist, and is inspired by the traditional ceremonial contexts that ancient cultures held around tattooing. He is honoured to bring people through the ancient rite of passage of being tattooed in a way that is intentional and reverent. Besides painting and tattooing, Jake is also the founder and designer of a jewellery and fashion brand called Medicine Dragon Designs, and is a DJ and musician, as well as a tattoo artist, published writer, speaker, and podcaster. https://jakekobrinportal.com/

Kathryn June “Ka” Amorastreya is a founding director of the Visionary Arts Foundation, a faculty member of the Visionary Arts Academy, and her designs have been featured in multiple publications including US Elle, Paris Vogue, Dark Beauty magazines, and the Rolling Stone online magazine. Ka was born and raised in the high plains of West Texas, where the bleak landscape allowed her young imagination to run wild. As a child, she immersed herself in creative exploration such as music, dance, theatre and crafting. Her passion ignited when she discovered healing arts, the power of healing, and the beauty in helping people improve their quality of life. She worked as a massage therapist for ten years, and began to seek ways to incorporate this love for healing into her artistic expressions. She then discovered her innate talent for creating with the gifts of nature, merging them into ceremonial tools, costume, headdress and adornment. Picking up the brush and palette for the first time in 2002, Ka recognized that she had a profound gift. As she taught herself to paint, she began to delve deep into her heart, bringing forth powerful visions. Meanwhile, she developed her expressive talents in the performance arts, and has danced and offered her art at events and galleries internationally for the past decade. https://www.serpentfeathers.com/

A renowned guitarist, songwriter, composer and international touring artist, Paul Masvidal is best known as co-founder and frontman of Cynic. Masvidal has also released music with groups Death, Aeon Spoke, Onward with Love, and most recently a series of conceptual solo albums, titled 'Mythical Human Vessel' where he experimented with brain entrainment as a therapeutic modality. Masvidal has also written and performed music for television and motion pictures through Still Motion Music, the Hollywood-based composer collective he co-founded. Composing the main title for the Emmy nominated NBC teen series Operation Junkyard and has scored series for H2, National Geographic, Bravo, ABC and PBS, Paul also worked as a session guitarist for Carsey Werner sitcoms That '70s Show and 3rd Rock from the Sun, and produced/played guitar on actor Jim Carrey's spiritually reflective children's book and accompanying soundtrack, How Roland Rolls. Masvidal lent his name to a line of signature instruments aptly named, Masvidalien Cosmo produced by Sweden's award-winning Strandberg Guitars. Masvidal has most recently entered into the creation of physical objects, developing Orgonite related devices and sacred geometric amulets. His interest in Cosmology, Consciousness, Extra-terrestrials, UFOs, crop circles and their connection to his spiritual interests have become integral to his work as an artist. http://masvidalien.com/

Chris Dyer is a Peruvian artist, living in Canada, and traveling the world half of his time. He experiences different cultures and then re-expresses them into his own oneness visions. He serves as a Bridge builder between different art movements from skateboard graphics, visionary paintings, street art murals and more. He wants to break boxes and see everything as one optimistic reality. Though his subject matters are as varied as his styles, his art is just a reflection of his personal spiritual journey. For more, look out for his coffee table book, his documentary or look him up at www.positivecreations.ca

Vanessa Lemen is an award-winning painter who lives and works in Carlsbad, CA. Her work has shown in galleries and exhibitions internationally, and is in private collections internationally as well. She is represented by Rehs Contemporary Galleries in NYC, and her work can also be found at the online gallery EveryDayOriginal.com, Artsy.com, InfectedByArt.com, and Ixgallery.com, as well as her own website VanessaLemenArt.com. With eight paintings exclusively published in the new Illustrated Limited Edition of The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin (Easton Press/MBI, Inc) released in 2018, her work has also been published in such art books as Spectrum, Women of Wonder, The Journal, and Infected By Art. She has also been featured in articles in magazines such as American Art Collector, Painter, ImagineFX, Poets And Artists, and San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles magazine. Vanessa also writes monthly columns for the Muddy Colors blog, and has been interviewed by Chet Zar on the Dark Art Society podcast, the One Fantastic Week webcast, Swain Hunt's Starting Bloq, and Brent Watkinson's Everyday Artist podcast (scroll down and click the play buttons below to listen to a couple of those interviews). Her recent work has earned her The Chesley Award, as well as awards in publications such as Infected By Art, in Art Renewal Center's ARC Salon, and participation in the International ARC Salon Exhibition. She and her husband, Ron, together run an online program, Lemenaid.com, instructing art and mentoring artists, as well as instructing at workshops in various locations across the US, including The Fantastic Workshop with One Fantastic Week. Described through metaphorical imagery, it's excerpts from her personal journey and reflection that she credits most as the inspiration for her work, and rolling with the unexpected as the very nature of her process. Each piece she creates seems to come from a chaos, and in it, she is able to create a place of reflection and curiosity, a balance of the deep-seated and the unknown, with areas of rest and of movement that intertwine to form a calm amid the chaos. http://vanessalemenart.com/

Morgan Mandala was born and raised outside of Chicago, Illinois,USA, but has called the front range of Colorado home for over a decade. She is most well-known for live painting, circular canvases, and imagery of fantastic naturalism combined with geometric forms. Morgan has toured around the globe performance painting, teaching, and constantly learning, often in collaboration with artist and partner, Randal Roberts. Artist statement: "I paint to visually explore our connection to the world, each other, and our inner selves living the conscious human experience. Mandalas are graphic representations of the universe - the multiplicity, and the singularity; the macrocosm, and microcosm. I re-interpret and merge objects and symbols in my paintings to create a metaphor for our seamless connection to the world, and open up a wider understanding (or questioning) of what we see and how we perceive. " https://www.morganmandala.com/

Caren Chroma is an artist who uses her paintings as Expressions, Reflections & Extensions of her creative life. Her muses stem from a fascination with Nature, capturing fragments of Transcendental States, honoring the Divine Feminine, and celebrating Source energy, which interweaves the entire life web. Her scintillating work is described as Flowedelic, as she creates from an intuitive, flow-state & aims to embellish her chosen subjects with curvaceous line work, high chroma hues, & streaming dots. Caren also exercises body & face paint on herself as the subject, and offers adornments at creative gatherings, events & one-on-one sessions. After discovering the Em-Powerful healing properties of sharing body paint with others, this art form has become a primary interest & focus on her artist path. Body paint can serve as a major tool for Self-Reflection, Human Connection, & Healing Transformation into LIVING ART. https://www.carenchroma.com/

Erica Robin is a fine oil painter born and raised in Southern California. She has practiced her craft ever since she could pick up a pencil. She studied under the master artist Michael Ward. From there, she went on to attend California State University Northridge where she majored in the Fine Arts. Transferring from CSUN to Art Institute of California Los Angeles, she graduated with a B.S. degree in Graphic Design. After going through years of personal turmoil growing up, Erica now achieves her dreams of being a prolific oil painter. She uses her art as a personal form of therapy to heal others as well as herself. She comes from a family of turmoil, addiction and depression. She has lost 3 people who were extremely close to her to suicide. Erica believes one of the reasons why so many people are unhappy today is because we have lost our connection to ourselves, to nature and to one another. She intends for her art to serve as a bridge into consciousness that we are all one and connected. She strives with every finished work to invoke feelings of empowerment within oneself and the divine connection that unifies us all. Her paintings have appeared in a number of showings, exhibits, galleries, and private collections throughout the world. https://www.facebook.com/EricaWexlerArt/

"Painting is a practice through which one offers their entire being to the mystery of creativity. When the brush hits the canvas, it's as if time stops and the artist is invited to sway harmoniously with the universe. Each brush stroke is layered upon the next to create an object that reminds us of our true boundless nature." "My mission is to continually open to the secrets of life with a brush in-hand. I hope to create art that wakes the viewer to unexpected and beautiful states of awareness. " John Speaker is a painter from Colorado and one of the founders of the ArtsyAF podcast. http://www.johnspeaker.com/ https://www.artsyafpodcast.com/

Dominique Zuniga is a Vocal Artist & Multi- instrumentalist born in California. Originating from Saudi Arabian and Mexican descent. Her style of music may be considered Mystic & Medicine. She received opera training offering her first performance at the “Tempe Center for Performing Arts” in Phoenix, Arizona at the age of 18, as a Mezzo Soprano. Combining many worldly influences creating “Shamanic operatic" style. Especially influenced by the indigenous shamanic medicine culture. She uses her voice as a tool to create healing sound scapes in ceremonial settings. Her voice has taken her all over the world. She hosts many workshops, retreats, and concerts encouraging people to unlock their vocal potential . She is Based in koh Phangan, Thailand where she facilitates some of her most recent projects. www.dominiquezuniga.com linktr.ee/zemsway.ofearth