Rising Forth

Writer, artist, and teacher Suzi Banks Baum created this mandala with Berkshire artist Sarah Nicholson on a tabletop at a women’s gathering in Orleans on Cape Cod. They were struck by the generous beauty of the land where they spent a long weekend and together responded by laying this mandala on a piece of eco-dyed linen. Suzi had collected small white moonstones on the beach, thinking of the students she was about to teach, laying each stone in the mandala with a prayer of thanks. The oracle cards were from three different sets that utilize botanical lore to encourage reflection. At this particular women’s gathering, they honor the Full Moon; the ritual of creating a mandala instilled a moment of awe, a place to pause. “We harvest materials with thanks for the impetus that nature has toward beauty,” says Suzi. “Nature does not think first before bursting into bloom. Nature responds to the momentum of growth buried deep within its cells.” This summer, Suzi will teach Backyard Art Camp, a book arts camp for people 16 and up, in Great Barrington. She also will teach a mixed media workshop at Snow Farm in Williamsburg this fall. She continues to work on a memoir about growing up spiritually confused and how motherhood helped her sort that confusion out. Two different segments of her memoir have won literary awards: from Hypertext Magazine and the Honeybee Creative Nonfiction award from The Good Life Review. suzibanksbaum.com

—Anastasia Stanmeyer