In this episode we meet Krysti Keener, a student in the East-West Psychology/MFA Masters Program, and hear of how she came to cultivate a transformative and healing artistic practice through opening to the liminal power of found objects. We discuss the problem of how we conventionally frame artistic practice and identity in relation to the culture industries and share strategies of exit which aim to liberate the practitioner from artistic labour to artistic transformation. We discuss how such a change of milieu based upon spiritual and holistic world views can produce new forms of creativity and subjectivity which facilitate individual and collective transformation and wellbeing. Krysti ends the podcast by sharing her current EWP community building project based upon creating an artist in residency program for people with traumatic brain injuries.

Bio: Krysti Keener’s life changed instantly when she suffered a traumatic brain injury in her late forties. A portal opened, and her art practice slowly developed as her brain healed. She is the Founder and Executive Director of The Neuro: Community, Artist Residency & Mentorship, a non-profit founded to support the flourishing of neuro-disrupted individuals by providing services that connect them to community, art, and nature, with an emphasis on integrating these aspects into their lives. She is an artist, Spiritual Herbalist, founder of the herbal brand Soul Topophilia, hypnosis practitioner, and Hakomi certified coach working with people whose lives have been upended. She holds a dual MBA from Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently a student at CIIS in the joint Masters degree program in East-West Psychology and an MFA.

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