Beauty is the oracle that speaks to us all.
– Luis Barragan
– Luis Barragan
An Invitation:
Sanctuary for the Soul
A space that envelopes our senses by delving into beauty, energies, colors, shapes, sounds and smells and transforming our understanding of what is possible by taking us to a new level of understanding.
Vuelosanto (Sacred Flight)
I had recently purchased a set of lectures that was being put on by the “Shift Network”. It consisted of fifteen different Shamanic practitioners from around the world with each practitioner giving their view of Shamanism and how they are making a difference in the world with their perspectives.
I had been listening to this absolutely wonderful series in my truck on my way to work each day. On this particular day I was listening to Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq, an Eskimo Shaman who was speaking about his job in the community in Greenland which was to go up to the glacier and come back and report how much the ice had melted. After he became a Shaman he discovered his purpose in life was to travel and “melt the ice in the hearts of man”. This was deeply moving to me to hear such a simple, yet profoundly beautiful purpose and I knew that I would someday have to meet this individual.
So as I am driving along listening to Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq, in rush hour traffic in San Diego, I am on the on ramp between 805 and 52 and I look over and see a dead owl lying there! I can’t believe my eyes, it’s an owl! My mind starts to race, I want that owl. But then I realize how dangerous it would be for me to stop. I am at a very unsafe ramp and there is no shoulder and as I mentioned, it’s rush hour. So I continue on my way to an appointment knowing that I made the safest decision, but I couldn’t get it out of my mind. My appointment lasted an hour and a half but all the while I kept thinking about that little owl. I thought “no way it’s still there”. But I just had to go back and see and if it was there, it was meant to be. But I had to prepare, as I mentioned it was a dangerous part of the freeway, it could have ants covering it, it could smell really bad or it could be severely damaged. So I found a plastic bag in my truck and some plastic gloves and put them on. Then I went back to the nearest spot to the on ramp and considered the safest approach. Traffic had died down by that time but it was still a bit tricky. I stopped at a spot where I could wait to merge into traffic. I waited until I saw a break just before a box truck which I knew I could out pace. I stepped on it and headed for the spot. Lo and behold it was still there. I switched on my hazard lights, thru the gear shift into park, did a minor bit of off-roading since there was no shoulder, jumped out of my truck, raced around the front to grab the owl, (ever so gently) ran back to my truck and slid him into a plastic bag, ripped off the gloves and floored it, unscathed.
Seeing that I was heading to work and it was a really hot day and he would have to stay in my truck until I was finished I decided to get a bag of ice for him to lay on to keep him cool. When I reached the store I had a chance to look him over. He or she was about 18″ long from head to tail feather. He had no ants on him and two little tufts of feathers coming out the upper part of his head which made me think he was a horned owl, but I could see no injuries on him and his body was still pliable. So I put him on ice and went to work.
On my way home I continued to listen to Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq, at one point he started to go into an Eskimo Shaman Chant. It was quite beautiful and then I remembered what I had in the back seat and I started to weep realizing the absolute beauty of the perfect synchronicity that I was experiencing. He also spoke of the hunt and how it was his peoples tradition to cut out the heart to connect with the animal’s Soul. I thought of my little owl and knew that this was not something I could do nor wanted to experience, but could appreciate and understand his perspective.
As I was merging unto the freeway underneath an overpass there was a huge brown moth that was approximately 6″ across that was doing this chaotic flight pattern is front of me. It was the most unusual spot for a moth to be, and I tried to swerve around him to not hit him. When I looked in my rear view mirror, he was nowhere in sight.
When I returned home. I texted a friend to get her opinion on what I should do with the owl. Upon waiting for her reply I thought it was best to do a ceremony to honor and release his spirit. I found a beautiful deep red and green handwoven Peruvian place mat that I laid on the ground and then placed him on top at an angle. I then took my rattle and lit some sage and sat down on the ground next to him and circled his body with the burning sage and using the rattle I did my best to honor his sprit. It was quite a moving experience and I began to cry.
After I finished I placed a Crystal on his heart and wrapped the Peruvian place mat around him and tied it up with raffia and placed a little sage tucked into the tie. I then placed him in a plastic bag and put him in the freezer for safe keeping until I could figure out what should be done with him.
I received a call from my friend who informed me that according to her sources, this was our Sacred Guardian and we should remove both wings and she should keep the left one and I should keep the right but first they needed to be splayed out and completely covered in salt for a month. Well I knew that I needed to get Vulfie to do this part for me. So we set a date for a Friday and when another friend of mine heard what we were doing she wanted to be a part of it. I removed the owl from the freezer in the morning and placed him in the frig to thaw out. We met that afternoon and Vulfie analyzed the owl. I should have taken him out of the freezer the night before because he was still a little frozen, but Vulfie massaged his wings to loosen them up. I saged everyone present, but I used Palo Santo instead of Sage. I then opened Sacred Space and then Vulfie started the procedure while I prepared a cardboard box with salt in it to place his wings and talons. I’m glad that I didn’t make the box ahead of time or I would have made it too small. One wing alone was 18″. We then placed both wings and both talons in the box on top of the salt and then slowly poured more salt on top of them. We went thru approximately 60 pounds of salt! It was complete, and he was to stay in that position for a month to thoroughly dry out, and we closed Sacred Space.
After everyone left, for some reason I just started to cry and thank our owl for giving his life to us. I felt my own body was completely drained and I thought it would be a good idea for me to take a salt bath also.
The next day, Saturday, I continued to feel really drained. In retrospect, I felt that for some reason the ceremony of the previous afternoon was deeply emotional for me. On Sunday I spoke with my friend and we decided it would be a good idea to do another ceremony for our owl to anchor our Sacred Guardian. Again I opened Sacred Space and I drew a Mandala on the inside of the lid of the cardboard box with a pyramid around it. I placed Egyptian key of life or Ankh, at each corner. I wrote Vuelosanto at the top and wrote words to signify what we were envisioning. I then read an incantation to call in help with our vision. I then burned it and spread it out over the salt, and closed up the box. I then placed the Peruvian weaving on top of it with a Chrystal and closed Sacred Space. I can’t express to you what an awesome experience that was. Doing this sort of ceremony just felt so right, to honor a creature so beautiful and mystical and to ask his spirit to help us bring our vision to fruition. To put this much love into the beginning of our journey is exactly the way something like this should start.
For you numerologists out there, I mentioned that I found the owl between the 805 and the 52 freeways, which I believe turns into a number 2, which stand for cooperation, diplomacy, balance, partnership, graciousness, sensitivity and peace which I think is an absolutely perfect representation for “Vuelosanto”.
VUELOSANTO (Sacred Flight):
Why the name, “Vuelosanto”? Find Out »
Design
Peace
Beauty
Authenticity
The Unfolding of Beauty
A true work of art appeals to us because deliberately or not it is an image of divine perfection, and so, in some sort a revelation of God.
– Lord David Cecil
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About Us
Meet Paloma and Vulfie
J. Paloma Glass
J. Paloma Glass
J. Paloma Glass Sees Beauty and Artistry in the World Around Us
Art. Beauty. Nature. Those are three interconnected words that have great meaning in the life and work of J. Paloma Glass, co-founder of Olde World Artisans in San Diego.
A decorative artist with a background in interior design, Paloma grew up in a canyon with oak trees and a river running through it. “I spent most of my childhood in that canyon,” she recalls. “I honestly think I had a greater connection with plants rather than people at that time.”
In her adult life, Paloma has been disappointed to see how urbanization has disrupted so much of the natural beauty in the world. “It seems strange to see that the city I grew up in, San Diego, has separated itself from nature so much,” she says.
Of course, San Diego is not alone in that regard. Many cities have followed similar paths of urban expansion that leaves natural resources as a secondary consideration. “We tear things down—trees and everything else—to build a home and then we replant around it,” Paloma says. “That makes no sense to me. It’s not showing respect for what was there in the first place.”
As she pursues art as a livelihood, Paloma gives a great deal of thought of how all of us can live a better life as characterized by a closer relationship with nature and with one another. It is one of her goals to create what she calls “a sustainable community with individuals working together in harmony to create a place of peace, beauty, love, authenticity, creativity, cooperation, respect and joy for everyone, including the plant and animal kingdom, and our Mother Earth.”
It’s a pretty lofty goal, and Paloma admits that it will take considerable time to achieve. In the meantime, she is using her life’s work to bring beauty to the surroundings of her clients.
Parental Influences
Much of Paloma’s values about art, beauty and nature come directly from her parents. Regarding her mother, Paloma says, “She taught me to love and respect nature at a level that I will never even come close to. She taught me to work hard, show up on time, have integrity and do what you say you’re going to do.”
Paloma’s appreciation for art, meanwhile, came largely from her father. “He named me after Paloma Picasso, Picasso’s daughter, so he might have known that I would be going in that direction,” she reports.
Paloma’s father wasn’t an artist himself, though he did love to paint and enjoyed looking at the paintings of the great masters. “We had paintings by the masters plastered all over the walls,” Paloma says. “I remember having to memorize that ‘This is a Degas, and this is a Michelangelo,’ so I was exposed to the masters at a very young age.”
However, Paloma didn’t feel that she had the talent to pursue a fine arts career. “A part of me always knew that I would never be able to paint like the masters, so I was drawn toward being an interior designer. I liked the idea of walking into a space and being able to affect how it makes you feel.”
With that in mind, Paloma made a decision to attend the Design Institute of San Diego. After graduating with a degree in Art and Design in 1986, she began work as an interior designer. After a couple years, she moved from interior design into the decorative painting profession. This proved to be a more satisfying career path for her, since it combined her artistic leanings with her ability to plan a space.
“Having an interior design background has helped me a lot,” Paloma says. “I have clients who rely on me to decide colors for them and use my design knowledge, so my interior design experience has been quite essential to my business.”
Important Partnerships
After working with an established faux-finishing business, Paloma teamed up with an old friend from high school, Vulfie Munson, who had been working as a painting contractor. In 1988, they formed Old World Artisans and began doing faux-finishing, Venetian plaster and murals for a variety of high-end residential and commercial clients.
Paloma recalls that there were very few women working in the trades during the early days of her career. “I was almost always mistaken for the cleaning lady,” she says. At the time, she felt somewhat out of place as a female entrepreneur seeking help in a male-dominated business world. “It’s such a pleasure for me now to see young women starting businesses, and it’s so obvious how much times have changed.”
A few years into her new career, Paloma had a fateful encounter at a home and garden show. She met a man named Bruce Lamb, who asked her to participate in creating a faux-finishing video. She participated in the making of the video, and this eventually led to the two of them working together to produce a nationally syndicated television show entitled “American Home Repair.” The show aired in 37 cities, reaching more than 11 million homes, for more than five years.
Meanwhile, Paloma continued to do faux and decorative painting projects in partnership with Vulfie. “Each of us has our specialties, so whichever one of us is better at something, we just take the ball and run with it,” she says. “It’s actually worked out really well.”
A Blueprint for Sustainable Living
Paloma is working toward becoming certified as a feng shui consultant since the principles of feng shui are very much in keeping with her desire to create harmonious and well-balanced surroundings.
Paloma’s commitment to a more earth-connected lifestyle is a counter-reaction to the dismissive attitude toward nature that she has observed throughout her life.
“I’ve always had this feeling that we don’t appreciate nature the way that we should and that many times the way we build things is lacking in beauty and authenticity,” she says. “That’s why I feel we need a blueprint that shows us how we can work together cooperatively as human beings, living together in communities where we trust one another and are surrounded by beauty and love, and where nature is working with us and we’re working with nature. It just seems so intuitive to me, but too often we’re working against nature. I think we all need to come together to make a long-term plan that makes sense for our future.”
As she proceeds with this ambitious endeavor, Paloma harkens back to the lessons she learned from her mother about hard work, integrity and making a difference in life. “She taught me that if you really feel in your heart that something is right, you have to make the decision to go in that direction,” she says, “even if it scares the hell out of you.”
With those words as her guide, Paloma has the motivation to keep going—all in the interest of advancing art, beauty and nature as the guiding principles of life.
(Article written by Diane Franklin)
Vulfie Munson
Vulfie Munson
In 1980, Vulfie started his own professional painting contracting business.
In 1988, he co-founded Olde World Artisans, a faux finishing, mural and Venetian Plaster business. Projects over the years ranged from high-end residential to commercial applications including working on television studios, apartment building, churches and well known Rancho Santa Fe restaurant, “Mille Fleur”.
Vulfie continued on to become an accomplished sculptor and has exhibited his lost wax bronze sculptures in various art shows and galleries in San Diego in addition to working on commissioned pieces. He would also work on numerous remodels in the home improvement industry. In 2007 he started participating in Burning Man, which is an event in Black Rock Desert and is held around Labor day and attracts about 60,000 people every year. Vulfie has spent considerable time working on Burning Man art cars such as “Mr. Cephalo”, “Frobot”, and “Alpha Ceti V Eel”, also known as CAVE.
He has also been involve in four theme camps, “Amberverts” and “Khans Asylum” and he was awarded a grant from Burning Man for an art installation as an honorarium artist that was incorporated inside of a maze at the base of the “Man” that was called “You are Who”. He also received a grant for a proposal that he submitted for an art installation that was built on a large plinth box with a centaur pulled by winged puti. The bas-reliefs on the plinth was underground scenes depicting cave’s, stalactites as well as salamanders. The installation was one of four that were selected to surround ‘The Man”.
Most recently he received a grant for a proposal that he submitted for an art installation that will be built on a large plinth box with a centaur pulled by winged puti. The bas-reliefs on this plinth will be of underground scenes depicting caves, stalactites as well as salamanders.
The skills that Vulfie brings to any project is creativity, vision, problem solving, ingenuity and an abundance of determination.