It was sunrise in Southern California, January 11, 1949. Something drew me to the bedroom window. I looked out to the front yard and for miles beyond. The familiar scene of my childhood was gone. Our front lawn with its towering evergreen tree, the vacant lot down the hill and the boulevard leading to Griffith Part were luminous. My world, where the landscape had been a constant was trasformed -covered now in a pure white blanket of what appeared to my five year old eyes to be diamond dust. It was a scene beyond my comprehension and my response was visceral. That moment is as immediate to me now as it was decades ago. My wife summed up the journey that followed perfectly. “That first snowfall set in motion both the search for a view of equal enchantment, as well as a visual memory in search of meaning.”

Establishing a point of view or personal vision is at the core of my work n landscape photography. Oscar Wilde said of another medium, “Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.” Each walk on the beach or into the forest is an opportunity to get in touch with the landscape in front of the lens and the landscape within. For an image to speak clearly, the photographer must have something to say. Beyond that, there is always an element of change, being present at the right moment as the light reveals form that strokes a chord of recognition. From that point on, intuition and experience take over.

Why black and white? Black and white photography lays open the bones of the image. It’s direct and to the point.

Time and place are always present in the image. I photograph where I live because it’s what I know and it’s accessible. Everything changes with time, including the way I see. I revisit many locations over the seasons and over the years, hopeful that I can get out of my own way, and truly “listen with my eyes.”

Libby’s music is a divine confluence of intimate storytelling, haunting poetry, her astonishing vocal range, and skilled and polished musicianship. To experience Libby live is to connect with your own soaring, traveling, and expansive heart.  Libby’s music is a divine confluence of intimate storytelling, haunting poetry, her astonishing vocal range, and skilled and polished musicianship. To experience Libby live is to connect with your own soaring, traveling, and expansive heart.

Pasqualina Azzarello employs the gesture and the act of its making as potential collaborators in a proactive public dialogue. Whether inside the studio, or in shared daily spaces, she explores the necessary disruption that occurs between the human mark and our changing urban landscape. Pasqualina believes that this creative disruption contains the capacity to spark a shift toward redefinition. Having worked on public projects, she’s interested in the meaning of human actions as it’s subject to the socio-cultural and psychological climate of an environment, and initiating dialogue about this dynamic.

Samadhi Dance Company is a fresh contemporary dance company based in Amsterdam and the Netherlands. The company is renowned for their collaborations with artists in other disciplines. Their productions fuse knowledge of the ancient Vedas with Western art and dance techniques. These include contemporary ballet, with strong influences of Bharata Natyam (traditional Indian dance), yoga, theater, jazz/urban and classical ballet to create a wider range of movements. The stunning production ‘Saranágati received the prestigious Dutch Dance Audience Award for best production and dance company of 2011. After eight successful productions the company’s fan base is spreading all over the world.

Brigitte Mars is an herbalist and nutritional consultant of Natural Health with over forty years of experience. She teaches Herbal Medicine at Naropa University, Bauman College of Holistic Nutrition, The School of Natural Medicine, Living Arts School, and Integrative Earth Medicine in Colorado. She has taught at Omega Institute, Esalen, Kripalu, and The Mayo Clinic, She blogs for the Huffington Post and Care2. She is a professional member of the American Herbalist Guild and known by many as an eternal flower child.

Brigitte is the author of many books and DVDs, including The Country Almanac of Home Remedies, The Desktop Guide to Herbal Medicine, Beauty by Nature, Addiction Free Naturally, The Sexual Herbal, Healing Herbal Teas, Rawsome! and co-author of The HempNut Cookbook. DVDS include Sacred Psychoactives, Herbal Wizardry for Kids of all Ages, Natural Remedies for Childhood Ailments and Natural Remedies for Emotional Health. Her latest project is a phone app called IPlant.

Brigitte and her daughter, Sunflower Sparkle Mars run Herb Camp for Kids in Boulder, Colorado. Brigitte’s other daughter is world famous activist/yogini-actress/ supermodel, Rainbeau Mars.