My name is Judi Marie Stauffer, and I am an artist, photographer, writer, energy medicine practitioner, and community activist.

I received a B.A. degree in Studio Art: Photography from Franconia College, a small experimental (now defunct) liberal arts college that was situated in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and a M.F.A. degree in Studio Art from Florida State University.

Professionally, I have had a varied career — first, as the Visual Arts Coordinator for the State of Florida’s Fine Arts Council overseeing the grant program to individual visual artists and visual arts organizations. Then, as the artistic director for the LeMoyne: Center for the Visual Arts (Tallahassee, Florida). After moving to California, in 1983, I began a 15-year career in public relations, directing the community relations program at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

In 2000, upon leaving the world of suits and high-heels, I pursued a passion for studying consciousness research, which led me to work with Alberto Villoldo and Lisa Summerlot (The Four Winds Society), Jose Luis Herrera, and medicine people in the Andes. Consequently, I have become a practitioner and chronicler of energy medicine in the Inka tradition.

I live with my husband, Rick Hubbard, and our three Boxer pups in a beautiful area of California known as the Santa Ynez Valley. About 40 miles north of Santa Barbara, our Valley is held between the transversal ranges of the Santa Ynez Mountains, which separate it from the coast, and the San Rafael Mountains. The latter mountain range is part of the Los Padres National Forest and forms the southern boundary of the San Rafael Wilderness Area — the first Wilderness Area set aside by the United States Congress in 1964. It is here that I devote time to creating artwork and giving back to my community through volunteer service. Several years ago, several neighbors and I co- created the citizens action group  Buellton Is Our Town, which successfully ran an urban growth boundary ballot initiative in 2008. Currently we are engaged with the City of Buellton in a community visioning process. Additionally, my husband and I are involved in the Cinnabar Foundation, which was created by my in-laws, in 1983, to provide support to nonprofit organizations and programs engaged in environmental advocacy, conservation education, and research, as well as the preservation of open space, free-flowing streams, and public access in Montana and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

The following pages contain information about my pursuits in shamanism and art. The former informs all aspects of my life, and the latter is an outward expression of my engagement with life — my love of nature, travel and experiencing cultures that organize reality different from my own.