SamathaYoga

I'm a professional yoga therapist and artist who creates art as a daily practice along with meditation and yoga movement. I began studying yoga in 2003. This allows me to wear comfy, stretchy clothing all the time! I teach 5-6 therapeutic classes online, targeted at older adults and folks who live with chronic health conditions. I also do one-on-one yoga therapy with folks, I specialize in respiratory therapy and, what I like to call, "Aging into Vitality".

I'm a mixed media collage artist who is working up to showing my work. I've helped facilitate a group for other mixed-media collage artists for over 8 years. I work with watercolors, inks (acrylic, Indian, fountain pen), acrylic paint, as well as paper of all kinds, bits and pieces of things and even wire! I make art journals from hand and have been creating journals the past 3 years. I also work on canvas, watercolor paper, and artist board. I have a love of pens of all varieties. During the pandemic I discovered fountain pens and am in love with how smoothly they write and how beautiful the inks are!

In addition to yoga and art, I love to play tabletop games with my wife. We also occasionally play video games together (Tangled, Mariokart) and co-play our favorites (Wingspan, Skyrim). The pandemic made me a devoted Animal Crossing New Horizons fan! I also read lots of SF and Fantasy, a very select handful of comic/graphic novel titles, and non-fiction (I especially like audiobooks for digesting non-fiction).

I love jazz music, old and contemporary, and most in between (except certain types of twee, softened up jazz... Mannheim Steamroller, etc., or Kenny G are right out), Americana & roots rock, punk, and prog-tastic classics. Love, love, love The Clash, Lou Reed, The Pixies, Bikini Kill, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Prince, Nina Simone, Mingus, M'Shell N'degeocello, Son Volt, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel.

I like Studio Ghibli films, Classic & New SF (Dark Star, Logan's Run, Star Wars, Aliens, Interstellar, Moon), costume dramas, spy/crime thrillers, The Great Pottery Throw Down, , and documentaries.

I'm a fan of women's professional soccer, I closely follow our local team, the Portland Thorns FC, and the US women's national team.

I love wearable art and wear an XL or 2XL in "girly" cuts, a M/L in "unisex". I'm a fan of BW photography, really all kinds of photography. I love art, art museums, and creative, funky, weird things. I love bright colors, wild patterns, and the downright odd sometimes.

My wife and I live in Portland, Oregon, which really isn't all that much like Portlandia. We have a dog and a young catten who bring us a lot of joy. Our home is filled with artwork and collectibles from all over the world. We love to watch the birds that visit our forested neighborhood.