Fascinating Women: Elizabeth Bunsen

This week’s Fascinating Woman is Elizabeth Bunsen of Be. . .Dream. . .Play.  She is a sensualist, artist, and mother of a teenage guru.

© 2012 Elizabeth Bunsen

MAK:  Elizabeth, tell us a bit about yourself for those who haven’t run across your blog or published work.

EB:  I grew up in the midwest, went to college, lived in Ivory Coast for 3 years, traveled, went to grad school, taught studio art and art history at various colleges, directed an art gallery, taught art to children and adults, and had a son late in life, who has been my greatest teacher. I live in a beautiful natural environment, take long walks, and leave creative messes where ever I go. I have a spacious studio/gallery in a hip town in the northeast and have been known to brake at the sight of a pink sky.

MAK: Wow – that’s a fun introduction. I don’t know which place to start! Tell me about growing up in the midwest and how you ended up in Ivory Coast. That sounds so exotic!

EB:  I grew up in the suburban mid west, the first-born child of two educators.   I went to college, studied art and danced on tabletops at the Zoo bar to Chicago blues bands – life was my oyster! During that time,  I traveled, took lots of risks and after five years I surprised myself and graduated.  There’s music in my soul and for whatever reason, reggae music in a French-speaking country with a climate of endless summer was calling me. So I joined the Peace Corps and lived in Ivory Coast for nearly 4 years. After that,  I accepted a scholarship in African Studies and did an internship at the Museum of African Art in DC.  In fact, they offered me a job there but by then I was wrapping and binding mixed media constructions for a show, which was a natural extension of my MFA in Painting and Art History.

© 2012 Elizabeth Bunsen

During those several years, I was absolutely certain I’d never choose to have a “normal” family life-like the one in which I grew up.  It just didn’t appeal to me. But never say never, right?  I took a job at a small college in Vermont, fell in love with the state, fell in love with a woodworker and a hundred year old wabi sabi-ish house in the woods next to a very big lake.  Twenty-six years later I have a 16-year-old son who is and has been my greatest teacher, a bossy but very pretty dachshund, a big-hearted domestic (read: great cook and organizer of stuff) artist/husband who is also a “wood whisperer.”

MAK:  Sometimes we surprise ourselves and make a u-turn. So what have you learned about life and love, once you had a change of heart?

EB:   Both life and love are a dance of call and response – that a heart centered flow takes you to unexpected (and sometimes exquisitely painful) places, that some things you can think your way into and out of – but mostly they are “on paper”… that deep listening to one’s  inner and outer worlds through the languages of the senses is where I thrive best, that making things can be erotic and mirror back one’s soul imprint…

© 2012 Elizabeth Bunsen

MAK:  Even your language is a sensory delight! Would you say that you greet the world and know it through your senses, more than your thoughts?

EB:  Sensuality definitely shapes my world and guides many of my choices. The scent and feel of things is important to me. Bird song and crow call. The way neutrals – warm and cool — give spaciousness to color. The delight my skin takes in cashmere and silk. The fresh bite of cilantro chutney.  I am constantly taking in the world through my senses.

MAK: So from that, I’d guess the richness of your environment is crucial to you.

EB:  Absolutely. I am inspired by living in a natural environment surrounded by mountains, old trees, birdsong, the lullaby shush of lake water…

© 2012 Elizabeth Bunsen

MAK: What else has shaped you into the person you are today?

EB: One huge factor (besides falling in love with the wood whisperer) was having a son late in life who seems to be my guru… I said before he was my greatest teacher. But also the kind generosity of many people. The realization I came to slowly and with some resistance that being an “artist” is not what I learned in my ten years of art school, directing three different galleries, having a spacious studio, or showing/selling my work – but rather that it is my way of learning, having a love affair with life and the sensual things in it.

MAK:  How does that impact you in terms of your art and the stream of commerce?

© 2012 Elizabeth Bunsen

EB:  I’m very impractical.  I’ve traded the pursuit of economic gain for the infinite preciousness of time – which is not to say that I do not sell my work or my skills – but rather that my economic interface with the world is driven by my love of discovery, experimentation and learning rather than the marketplace – I consider living a very modest lifestyle a learned and important skill.

MAK: I love how conscious you are about that intention and the choices and actions that flow from it. So what three values are most important to you and how do you define them?

EB: The first would be deep listening: a kind of meditative tuning into the sound of place – inside or out – without naming – just gently holding ambient sound – and writing, drawing, making marks, moving, dancing in that place… much of my journaling is evidence of this… at least I hope it is.  The second is wabi sabi : a Japanese aesthetic of the imperfect and impermanent – quiet, nature-based, collaborating with the elements – wabi sabi is illusive and wise – this value brings me back to center and the reality of this life in the here and now.  And the third is wasting nothing: tuning in to and celebrating the intrinsic beauty in all things – used tea bags, rusty things, stones pocketed on a walk, bones, beach glass, driftwood.

© 2012 Elizabeth Bunsen

MAK:  Those fit perfectly with my image of you. . .  very organic, quiet, “everything is sacred” kinds of values that the majority of the population seems to ignore for more flashy or fear-avoidance values.  I also suspect that you’re really in tune with your intuition and hearing your inner wisdom regularly as part of the flow of life. Yes?

EB: Absolutely. Intuition plays a very big part in my life – deep listening is a way of tuning into the channel, here at cedar lodge – we talk about being in the vortex, nothing is coincidental there – how well do I pay attention? – as well as I can by staying grounded and centered and not giving into the seduction of fear, by releasing the need to control.

MAK:  How does your present life live out your purpose and values?

EB:  I attempt to savor each moment every day – the weather always  plays a big part as to the flow of choices.  I always try to make the most out of what might be offered – sub-zero temperatures: dry citrus on the wood stove, brew chai – mix them up in little books… sunny and warm – rust up cotton sheets – make a poetry tent… rain – photograph the madonna in the mud puddles. I focus on being here now – in this moment – with the sometimes chaotic mix of family, nature and my own agendas – carving out a sensual wabi-sabi vessel of constant creativity – as a language, a gift, a wandering path of wondering.

© 2012 Elizabeth Bunsen

MAK:  How does that play out in your work and creative expression? (I’m about to give in to my urge to brew some chai, myself.)

EB:  Right now I am exploring the sensual qualities of eco-dyed fabric, the sheer translucency of used tea bag papers, making marks inspired by  my daily life, the brief, diagonal play of winter light, beeswax – my favorite aromatic and satiny adhesive, making tiny books, finding a way to gather and orchestrate an assembling (as in assemblage/construction/collage) of my extensive collection of found and collected “treasure.”

MAK: I can totally understand why your blog is called Be. . .Dream. . .Play.  It’s a great mantra! Thanks for playing with us, Elizabeth.

© 2012 Elizabeth Bunsen

Please go visit and enjoy Elizabeth’s blog. You can find more examples of her work HERE.  You can also check out her Tumblr site, Mud Puddle Madonna.   The archives for Mud Puddle Madonna are here.  Her work has been featured in Somerset Studio, Artful Blogging, Art Journaling, and two of lk ludwig’s books: True Vision and Creative Wildfire.