We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lena Kunz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lena, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

What I find to be memorable and kind was after my Ayahuasca experience. I had a hard time with the integration. I was finishing up my Polarity Therapy and Craniosacral Therapy training. I was a wreck and the teachers and students were there to hold space for me. Even though they didn’t work with plant medicine, they saw I was lost and scared. I remember one of my teachers acknowledging what I was going through, the abandonment and hurt I felt. Hearing those words come out of her mouth, made me feel less silly and misunderstood. I didn’t understand what was happening or how to handle the Ayahuasca integration. But the teachers and other students saw me and held space for the energy. They accepted the dark and held space for me to process. They helped me see that it’s okay to be vulnerable. “Vulnerability is just a shadow of strength.” Sit with that for a moment.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Lena. I’m an artist, yoga instructor, and holistic practitioner which entails Reiki, Polarity Therapy, and Craniosacral Therapy. I have trained in and certified myself in all three of them. I would love to incorporate or offer those services one day. Allowing people to discover what suites them best.

I went to art based schools growing up and an art college. After college, I trained in yoga and energy healing. Growing up with art was a way to help me express myself. It was difficult for me to verbally communicate due to being adopted from another country. I was behind my age group and had a lot of catching up to do. I feel art contribute to the way I see life and healing. Art and healing both allow different approaches and expression. We forget everyone is different and I feel art and healing shows us that. That is if we’re willing to be present and recognize it.

From my experience creating art, teaching yoga, doing energy healing sessions, enabled me to create and learned how to hold space for clients, students, and the public who view art. Not everyone will be ready or understand what they see or experience. That is when the public become my teacher. I learned and still am learning to not take things too personally when someone doesn’t like my art or my style of teaching. Each of us have our own journey and expectations. I am here to hold space for those who do resonate with my energy and art. That is what I try to offer, creative wise, and services.

One thing I have noticed in the past when I created art that dealt with darker subject matters, such as addiction and trauma, people had a hard time viewing my art. I wanted show people weren’t alone with their struggles. Yet most viewers got upset or found a way to disassociate. I learned sometimes people aren’t ready or may have a difficult time to process things. Especially when it comes to trauma or emotions. Along with finding the right audience. This goes for energy healing work. You can hold space for the client, but it is up to the client to receive and be open to their own healing. That goes for art. Are you willing to be open or be stuck how you think you should perceive art. How do we step out of the ideal expectations of how an artist should go about their work or present it. Each artist, whatever form it is, is sharing their creativity and journey with the public. We should be honored and supportive of them to share their gifts. I feel we have too much expectations of how we need to be, our status, or connections we know, to say whether we are worthy or not. We are all art and as humans are painting the ourselves, and the life we want. I feel we’re forgetting the rawness and natural parts about being human. To sit with ourselves. The emotions and thoughts we have. How we see life. What brings us back stillness.

I feel my art will always evolve and change. Whether it’s focusing on different subject matters or styles of art. I will know what I was going through when I created a piece. I will be able to look back and remember the stage I was in. If there was something I was trying to heal. I feel my art will always be a teacher to me. It may take years to understand and connect the dots together. Art plays in mysterious ways. It may look simple, but has subtle ways to show the unknown.

The art I am creating now focuses on nature and connection to creation. The questions we seek about life. Life and death. The unknown and consciousness to life. What’s around us and how we overlook nature. Have you ever thought about color and how it plays in nature. Really becoming one or seeing the scenery like you are seeing it for the first time. How the colors create the atmosphere and emotions. The mystical and beauty that flows through. Also how things are created and then decay. There’s only a memory left.

Lately I’ve been creating landscapes or the concept of life and the links to the unknown. Nature calms me down and creating sceneries I feel as if I am there, astal traveling. I ponder into ideas and thoughts of life and what we have forgotten. Consciousness/ energy that never dies, but transforms. Like all forms of life. I hope from my experiences and feelings there’s something more than this life. I’ve been having some doubts after my mom passed away late April, in 2024. I am learning hold space myself and others. Understanding I will have days where it’s difficult to social or be more sensitive. However, we’re all like flowers and need to nurture ourselves when harsh weather arises.

I hope I can enlighten other artists and others in general to honor who you are and the gifts you bring to this world.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

One major experience that was very challenging, yet helped me grow was from a Ayahuasca ceremony. Some reason the experience shook me and I had to sit with the uncomfortable. Some say it was an “ego death” and others have heard people actually departing from this life during a ceremony like Ayahuasca. I experienced a lot of emotions rising up to the surface and learned to set boundaries for myself. The Ayahuasca facilitator told me that I may express my creativity in a different way. One, I will become the artwork. The subject matters I discussed in the past I now understood why some people may have had a hard time with it. Also, I felt more intuned with spirit world. Senses that are still hard to explain. Energy was more visible and nature became more alive, and crisp.

I feel that experience changed and helped shaped how I view healing and life. It definitely plays a role in my art. The questions I have about life and the unknown. The path to healing and processing whatever.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I feel this is something everyone can relate to- control . Growing up I had to prove to the world that I could be just like others and do things like most. Maybe at a certain point when you’re in your 20s and so on, you face situations where the outcome is different than you expected or the journey taken didn’t lead to where you We think it should look a certain way, but ends up not. To get to the point, I am trying to learn it’s okay to not have control of an outcome. I fear if I don’t try to control things, then it seems like I don’t care. However, doing the best I can and having an open mind, can ease the ride.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artistlk?igsh=M2J1MHFiaXA0ZTdj&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/6nQWb6u2vVmwVXrq/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Other: https://on.soundcloud.com/qPGAE4wAbWwFXumG7

Image Credits
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