Gifts from my Ancestors. Painting is like a prayer, an intuitive process, a meditative place of dreams, images, and symbols. The act of painting is a healing process of revealing hidden feelings, thoughts, and visualizations … a growing process to encounter my shadows and inner visions. A painting is a place to tell my stories. To play. To explore and to be. I come from a rich cultural heritage, the Pacific Northwest Coast. I was born and raised in the lush rainforest of Southeast Alaska. I am Tligit. Being Tlingit, I am - “A Real Human Being” as we call ourselves. I am an Eagle from the House Lowered From the Sun of the Thunderbird Clan and a Child of the Sockeye Clan. My ancestral village is Klukwan, Valley of the Chilkats. My ancestors have been creating art for thousands of years. Thus, I come from a long line of artists. They have left me a wealth of symbols, images, and stories to draw upon and contemplate. Often, when I am painting, I can actually feel their essence in my blood and catch a glimpse of the places where they have traveled in other worldly realms. I ponder on the wonders of their primordial domain. They are my teachers, and I am able, in this spiritual way, to explore their work, to learn the secret kept within, and to recapture the spirits of my ancestors. There are moments when I feel as if their spirits are invoked through my art. Through painting my own ancestors’ legends and my own stories of living in this world today, I feel as if I am reclaiming my heritage and, in my own way, integrating the past with the present. Through my artwork, my culture continues in me, invoking the Tlingit heritage and my Eastern teachings to which I have been introduced, each with its own rich culture and philosophy. Buddhism and the Tao have been a part of my life along with my own Native spirituality. My personal quest involving these spiritual practices began while I was living in the Hawaiian Islands after a near death experience and a healing crisis. Healing and the arts are closely traditionally intertwined. My personal path of healing began in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Maui, Hawaii, when I began to work with healers and teachers of the body, heart and soul. As a continuation of this process, I am working with my art to express my inner-being, journeying, dreaming, healing, and creating images and stories of my life and my culture along the path of healing my own body, heart and soul. These are the sources of my inspiration for my paintings. *-,-*-,- Gunalcheesh -,-*-,-* Celeste Worl