Alchemy is at once a universal handbook for creative growth and an intimate record of one artist s passionate journey to the edges of perception. It is possessed of a chant-like quality, and like a chant, its subtle powers gather by accretion to a final message that is both transcendent and ultimately useful. Each chapter is introduced with an original full-color painting paired with text and poetry; each group is further keyed into an I Ching hexagram or tarot card. These multiple forms provide the basis for an interactive reading, inviting you into a remapping of your own journey. The book moves through themes that are practical such as Leadership, to more inspirational matters such as Fanning Our Unique Flame. Not since Blake and Chagall has an individual successfully combined multi-media forms into an evocative integrated whole. What Natalie Goldberg s Writing Down the Bones did for the craft of creative writing, The Alchemy of Possibility does for the process of creative work in general. For every working artist, and for every person who wants to live artfully, Alchemy is a work of living inspiration. It promises to take a unique place in the spiritual libraries of seekers everywhere.
CAROLYN MARY KLEEFELD
Born in England, philosopher, poet, prose-writer and visual artist Carolyn Mary Kleefeld grew up in Southern California and studied art and psychology at UCLA. Her innovative writing and artwork have been used for over twenty-five years in the fields of human consciousness and creativity. A visionary pioneer, Ms. Kleefeld has the rare ability to convey through lyrical language, metaphor and symbolic image, the spiritual potential of human beings.
Fueled by a need for creative expression and a lifelong fascination with psychological and spiritual transformation, Ms. Kleefeld is the author of four poetry books that explore these archetypal themes. These books have been used as texts in university courses and have been translated into Braille by the Library of Congress.
Ms. Kleefeld's book, The Alchemy of Possibility: Reinventing Your Personal Mythology (Merrill-West Publishing 1998), with an introduction by Laura Archera Huxley, combines her visual art, philosophical prose and poetry, and includes corresponding quotes from the I Ching and the Tarot. Healers as well as professors of art and psychology have also used "Alchemy" as an inspirational text and oracular guidebook.
An interview with Ms. Kleefeld is included in the anthology Mavericks of the Mind: Conversations for the New Millennium (Crossing Press 1993), as are interviews with Alan Ginsberg, Terence McKenna, Dr. Timothy Leary and other cutting-edge thinkers of our time. Kissing Darkness: Love Poems and Art, a lovers' dialogue in poetry written in collaboration with David Wayne Dunn, was published in 2003 by Riverwood Books, an imprint of White Cloud Press (publishers of Kahlil Gibran). Soul Seeds: Revelations and Drawings, a collection of Ms. Kleefeld's philosophical aphorisms, published by Cross-Cultural Communications in 2008, was nominated for the 2008 Pushcart Prize. Ms. Kleefeld's latest poetry book, Vagabond Dawns was published by Cross Cultural Communications in 2009.
Over the past two decades, Ms. Kleefeld has created an extensive and diverse body of paintings and drawings, ranging in style from romantic figurative to abstract. In her language of poetic imagery, Ms. Kleefeld expresses the passions of the human heart and a pantheistic reverence for the Big Sur wilderness she inhabits. The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University exhibited a retrospective of Ms. Kleefeld's paintings and drawings in 2008 and published an exhibition catalog, Carolyn Mary Kleefeld: Visions from Big Sur, with art from the exhibit and a commentary by museum curator and director, Michael Zakian, PhD. In addition to being featured in art magazines and textbooks, Ms. Kleefeld's award-winning art can be found in the personal collections of Ted Turner, the estate of Laura Archera Huxley, and many others, as well as at the United Nations, and in hospitals, galleries and museums nationwide.
