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Shards & Circles: Artistic Adventures in Spirit and Ecology

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Desperate Prayers of beauty
Immersion in Ecopsychology
Damaged Wilderness Transformed to Sacred Art

Shards & Circles: Artistic Adventures in Spirit and Ecology
Daniel D. Dancer
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1552127842

Book Description

As his stories unfold, Daniel Dancer reflects on spirituality, indigenous knowledge, quantum physics, psychology, and ecological principles. Humor, synchronicity, delight, and heartfelt struggle are all present in these tales. The result is a breath of wholeness, a gift for our apocalyptic times and for a culture that has forgotten its connection to nature.

The sacred, magical role that art has held in everyday life since the dawn of humanity is often lost in modern society. Dancer's timely work is a quest to revive this form of art, weaving the shards of our failing culture and fragmented ecosystems into a celebration of possibility. Entertaining, full of surprise at every turn, and beautifully illustrated, Shards & Circles helps map the way home to our authentic selves.

Customer Reviews:

Desperate Prayers of beauty.......2007-04-20

This book changed my life.
I read it nearly 3 years ago and still it is impacting me. Page by glorious page, insights flooded me and tears welled in my eyes over and over. I was astounded at what I was reading...the earthy brilliance and heartful awareness that was given as beauty to the unsuspecting and open mouths of the spiritually hungry. Most certainly this author must be gifted, to have his feet rooted so sweetly in this wild earth while still capable to having the vast perspective of a soaring bird. This is rare.

Something spilled from this book into me, telling a story beneath the stories, which, in themselves were mind-opening and beauty provoking. What I heard underneath it all was a story of a man curious enough in mystery and keen in his vision to dive into a world seldom seen...a world that is calling desperately for our attention now...an invisible, Holy world that feeds on beauty, ceremony and tears. To allow this powerful understanding in, opens hearts and breaks into long held patterning. It can change the world. I am forever grateful that this book is here to feed us through perilous times with it's luscious and cohesive expanse.

Immersion in Ecopsychology.......2006-02-09

Anyone who has been moved by David Abram's "Spell of the Sensuous," is sure to feel the same about this gem by environmental artist Daniel Dancer. Here ecopsychology is demonstrated - vividly, authentically - rather than simply being talked about. Dancer's stories of immersing himself in landscapes, and then assembling found objects into art forms as gifts, as expressions, as spontaneous shamanic undertakings invites readers to reflect not only on their own ways of communing with the vibrancy and brokenness of the natural world but also of how we all can deepen the ways in which we open our hearts to the healing powers of nature.

It has been several months since I read "Shards and Circles", and yet without even opening the book, powerful images come to mind - vignettes of stories I shall never forget. I remember how, in contrast to Dancer's usual style of composing his art in the same episode in which his encounter with objects begins, one story reveals that it took him several years of returning to a particular place before he was moved to express a resolution to the mystery initially posed to him by a half-burned shard of paper. The psychological cleansing that came for him by waiting was powerful and suggests to me possibilities for my own recurring visits to special spots.

I was brought to tears by a chapter in which the power of place and simple acts of releasing feathers with his young children in a ritualistic manner gave Dancer a chance to transform the pain of divorce and home-leaving into an intimate moment of wonder and bonding that his children, surely, will never forget.

Finally, I applaud the author for presenting his stories so truthfully that even his mis-steps became learning experiences for this reader. Sparely, beautifully written, Daniel Dancer's words are windows of possibility for wounded souls in a wounded world.

Damaged Wilderness Transformed to Sacred Art.......2006-01-26

Daniel Dancer gives a revolutionary new meaning to both art and ecology, and he does so by melding the two in a way that is inviting, thought-provoking, consciousness-raising, and inspiring. A photographer who has documented many endangered lands, he seeks out the wounded places on the earth. In clearcut forests, beaches clogged with litter, a stretch of the Columbia River that faces the Hanford Nuclear Plant, and other places, he gathers waste left by human presence and recreates it, then and there, as art. His book, written with humor and playfulness, a naturalist's attention to detail and a philosopher's sense of the broader picture, tells the stories of these places and the works that arose from them.

Like the artist Andy Goldsworthy, Daniel Dancer's work uses the elements of a place and arranges them in the context of that place. Both make three-dimensional art that is meant to be ephemeral. Ultimately, however, Goldsworthy's pieces are exquisite creations that are only about themselves. Dancer's work, on the other hand, springs not only from a particular place but also from the ways that humans have interacted with that place. These fascinating works involve the artist himself and us, the witnesses/readers not only in the sorrowful reality of What Is, but in the attitude that transformation is possible. They invite us to bring attentive presence to beautiful, damaged places and to find what is sacred and meaningful everywhere.

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Strange circle
Gale Sidney
Manufacturer: Universal Pub. and Distributing Corp
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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The Circle Dancers
Diana Der-Hovanessian
Manufacturer: Sheep Meadow Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Circle of life celebrated by hoop dancer.: An article from: Wind Speaker

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Circle of life celebrated by hoop dancer.: An article from: Wind Speaker
Pamela Sexsmith
Manufacturer: Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta (AMMSA)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008GP0IS
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Wind Speaker, published by Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta (AMMSA) on October 1, 2000. The length of the article is 760 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Circle of life celebrated by hoop dancer.
Author: Pamela Sexsmith
Publication: Wind Speaker (Newsletter)
Date: October 1, 2000
Publisher: Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta (AMMSA)
Volume: 18 Issue: 6 Page: 13

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