How Did Sanctuary Flow Get Here- The Story Behind Sanctuary Flow Wellness

 How Sanctuary Flow Wellness Got Here:

 The Story Behind Sanctuary Flow Wellness Part 1

 

Chapter 1

 If you couldn’t buy it, you had to make it.

My parents met in the early 1950s at the California School of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California. Both came from artistic backgrounds and arrived there to further their studies at one of the country’s most respected art colleges.

My mother and father brought together two different artistic traditions. My mother was drawn to arts and crafts, jewelry making, and fashion design, and my father studied fine arts, painting, collage, graphic design, and fashion illustration. Together, they created not only a life but an artistic partnership that would shape our entire family.

They eventually married and raised four children, with me being the second child. Art was never something separate from our daily life. It was woven into everything we did. Our home was filled with paints, fabric, sketches, and handmade objects. And creative projects in various stages of completion. We participated in craft fairs, hosted open studios, and learned from an early age that creativity was not a luxury- it was a way of life. 

My parents introduced us to a world of galleries, exhibitions, performances, literature, Publishing Companies, learning how to hang artwork, welcome visitors, and share our creations with others. Art is not something that belongs only in museums; it belongs to everyone. They were both founding members of The Berkeley Artists Guild and founding members of the Berkeley Co-op. Food Cooperative.

Music was also a central part of our family life. We performed together in a singing group called the Ninth Cabaret, where each family member contributed their voice to four-part harmony. My sister Yvette has just moved to New York and never sang with us.

My father was affectionately known as the human instrument because of his remarkable ability to imitate sounds and create musical effects with his voice. Performing together taught us discipline, teamwork, and the joy of creating something larger than ourselves. People were amazed at the sounds we made.

Although we did not always have a great deal of money, we possessed something equally valuable: ingenuity. There is an unspoken family motto that guides us: 

 “If you couldn't buy it, you had to make it.” And that is exactly what we did. And to this day, I am still following this family motto.

We made decorations, costumes, artwork, gifts, furniture, and jewelry; we painted; we made gift boxes to contain my mother's necklace and earrings; my father would string up large swatches of paper rolls along the backyard fence and give us buckets of paint to make murals. 

We made costumes and solutions to everyday problems. Creativity was not reserved for special occasions: it was our way of navigating the world.

 Father worked as a Technical Illustrator for Lockheed’s Missile and Space Operations in Palo Alto around 1956. In those days they didn’t have computers, so they hired highly skilled artists and Illustrators to communicate technical information visually. A funny story: One of my father's friends, ironically, was living in Palo Alto at the time and happened to see a Black Man, as he recounts, driving through the gates of Lockheed in a 56 VW Bug and thought to himself, “this man must be lost or something”. Stay Tuned in for Part 2