Much of my creative work addresses political issues. My second large Doll, made in 2000, was of a screaming Afghan orphan, with Hermes as her communicator/guide, After 9/11, when Bush et al took the US to war, first in Afghanistan, then Iraq, I dove into a study of the history of Afghanistan, often a crossroad of clashing empires. That Afghan girl and her scream called me to her. In 2010, I went to Afghanistan for International Women’s Day. My poetry collection “Reclaiming the Apple” came from the trip, as did years of involvement with Afghans4Tomorrow, an NGO supporting girls’ education and women’s economic development. The end of all that with the takeover by the Taliban once again is infuriating and heartbreaking.

The world, and America, are in terrible disarray. Can we keep democracy alive and wrestle it from the forces that would weaken it, that ennoble greed and individualism at the expense of planetary health and human well-being? These questions contribute to much of my writing and art.

Currently I am making multimedia pieces and figures incorporating wood, clay, boxes, paint, found objects, feathers, and other items from nature. Many depict the interconnection of human and nonhuman life and suggest the creative and healing potential in grounding ourselves in ancient shamanic practices.

My profession as a psychologist informs all of my work. I continue to learn the deepest truths from being present with my clients’ suffering, trauma, and inspirational growth, and from the meaningful engagement in finding what heals.

Adrienne Admundsen

Artist • Writer • Poet

I discovered the power of art when I lost a child. Like a woman in a fairy tale, I wandered as in a dark wood, lost, looking for moonlit stones to show me the way to survive, to heal, to transform. I found this In Cassandra Light’s Way of the Doll school, where I sculpted and costumed a life-sized “doll,” a woman holding a baby. Many stories of loss were layered into the making. When I sculpted the baby, I wrote one of first poems of my adult life. The final words alluded to the Celtic Cerridwen myth, which ends with the small human hero’s transformation into the great bard Taliesin. The words were “and the poet comes ashore.”

Within weeks I was in a writing class and writing poetry— though I’d planned to write political essays! I’ve since published three poetry collections.

I am currently working on a dystopian speculative fiction novel with a mystic twist.