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A native of the San Luis Valley, Jesse left to study Anthropology and Spanish Literature at CU Boulder, and then to travel the country studying Permaculture and Regenerative Farming. His study of other cultures gave him a keen interest in various spiritual practices, starting with Zen meditation, followed by Qigong, Sanskrit chanting, and various forms of Shamanic practice. Ten years later he returned to the Valley to manage the Rio Grande Farm Park. There he met his wife, Marlena. After the birth of their daughter he began feeling a call to a new line of work that better integrated his spiritual practice into his public life. After much consultation with trusted friends and many hours of meditation, massage therapy presented itself as the avenue for his new career. He attended the Crestone Healing Arts Center for an intense tutelage under Dan Retuta, delving further into Qigong practice and integrating that into massage therapy. He offers a variety of modalities to work with bodily, emotional, and spiritual health including: Swedish massage, Acupressure, Shiatsu, Foot Reflexology, Facilitated Stretching, Guided Journeywork, and Qigong.
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I’m Marlena. I attended art school through most of my childhood in Florida, receiving my masters degree in art history from the university of south Florida in 2016. I was skilled at this work, but also felt a deep frustration with how art functions in our world and more specifically the institutions in which we keep our art. You see, I was drawn to objects imbued with spirit (like Doris Salcedo’s Plegaria Muda), but housing such a powerful installation within the sterile walls of a museum puts emphasis on its materiality, removing it’s magic. (at least for me). I could go on for a long time on this subject, but that’s not the point. I felt unsatisfied, so I left that world, but I took a handful of beautiful friendships with me
Naturally, I was called to the San Luis Valley and to Jesse. Being here has taken me out of the primary role of researcher/observer and taught me what I now think Salcedo knew when she made Plegaria Muda, soil is not a metaphor for life and death, it is alive with its own spirits. Being a chicken farmer, wife, and mother in the SLV has taught me that we are just one expression of life amidst an animate world. This has empowered me to feel magic in the ritual of hand dipping beeswax candles, to intuitively know that the plants share their gifts when I massage plant infused oils into my skin. I get to make these Dancing Badger Bodyworks offerings, manage our communications, all while raising up our sweet daughter, Ida.
My life, my work, and my prayer is to feel the spirit of the world, to make art or objects teeming with that spirit, and share it with my community and my family in hopes that they feel the connection or receive healing or experience joy.