In this episode, Rebecca speaks with artist and researcher Sarah Bellisario, who will be joining Therapeutic Landscapes II: Ritual, Folklore and Wellbeing as part of the Magical Material Practice panel.

Sarah’s work explores how symbolic objects are used within magical, spiritual, faith-healing, and therapeutic practices, asking what these material encounters continue to offer us in relation to healing, recovery, connection, and meaning-making.

Together, Rebecca and Sarah discuss the development of The Humanist Deck, a magical, spiritual, and therapeutic art resource that grew out of Sarah’s fine art doctorate and her own creative healing practice. They explore how the deck has become a tool for conversation, reflection, art-making, and emotional recovery, with uses emerging across therapeutic, creative, NHS, and addiction recovery settings.

The conversation also explores Sarah’s Goddess Project, including her contemporary goddess sculptures, the public offerings and wishes left for them, and her developing idea for a collaboratively created tarot deck made by many people, for many people.

This conversation is about art as research, objects as containers of meaning, ritual as a holding space, and the power of making something tangible from personal and collective healing work.

Sarah will be speaking on Saturday 13th June in the Magical Material Practice panel, with her talk Holding Space for Recovery: Creative Engagement with Symbolic Artefacts and Ritual Making. She will also be running a workshop using The Humanist Deck.

Links:

Sarah Bellisario: www.sarahbellisario.com

The Humanist Deck: www.humannisdeck.com

Sarah's Instagram: @artandthecraft

Therapeutic Landscapes II: www.therapeutic-landscapes.org