Fetzer Institute Guiding Purpose Murals
The Fetzer Institute’s guiding purpose is “To awaken into and serve Spirit for the transformation of self, society and the natural world.” The murals you see on the walls of the Monrovia, CA office reflect and refract this guiding purpose in four parts.
About the Artists
Macha and Melissa Suzuki share a passion for the barrier-shattering potential of art. Macha is a Tokyo-born immigrant who has exhibited work in national and international museums and galleries and teaches art and design at Loyola Marymount University. Melissa is a southern California native and a certified child-life specialist, applying her talents to home-schooling and creating art in her local community. Their children, Maika and Ren, enjoyed endless hours of reading and private movie screenings in the Fetzer office (fondly nicknamed “the treehouse” by Maika and Ren) over several months of late-night mural painting.
“Awakening Into and Serving Spirit”
This mural is meant to communicate the divine-initiated transformation of all things. This is an awakening that can begin with an individual’s inner world and can then extend to have a sweeping impact on the outer world. We have incorporated specific images to awaken the realization of divine potential in the landscapes of our bodies but also revered facets of our natural world. We have chosen silhouettes of significant plants: olive branches, white sage, apple blossoms, and poppies. Olive trees hold religious, historical, and cultural significance. They are known symbols of peace and hope. One of the oldest olive trees in Palestine is vigilantly cared for by a family that will often sleep underneath its branches to protect it during the night. White sage is an important facet of Indigenous spirituality and identity; used for cleansing the body and spirit. Apple blossoms are Michigan's fragrant and beautiful state flower and stand as a representation of the Fetzer Institute's home office and its globally reaching impact. Fetzer California is represented by the sprawling golden poppies, California's state flower. We have incorporated the breathtaking precision of the honeycomb as a nod to the beauty accomplished in community. Metallic gold lines are incorporated throughout all of the murals to announce the presence of the divine.
Transformation of Self
Attending to the breath enhances self-awareness and is a common practice in many religious and spiritual traditions. This piece is meant to be an expansive recognition of self and its manifestation of the divine. The front of the figure in this piece is permeable; the definition of the body is created by the word ruach. Ruach is the Hebrew word meaning 'wind' or 'breath'. Ruach is the emanation of the divine's life force; the breath that creates and sustains life. Divine gold lines cling to the figure which is encapsulated by an abstract cluster of sacred lotus seeds which represent rebirth and resurrection.
Transformation of Society
This primarily monochromatic piece portrays the unintentional/happenstance intersection of our lives with those around us. The Fetzer space lends itself easily to this awareness. While we were painting, it seemed at times, that someone was whispering over our shoulders who was instead, at the street corner down below. We felt it appropriate to imagine all of the ways that our lives are transformed by both intentional and unintentional relationships that we share. The gold that occupies the space where the figures overlap recognizes the divine within those spaces and the idea that things unseen in the spiritual world are no less real and significant than things we see in the material world.
Transformation of the Natural World
This piece is a representation of the San Gabriel Mountains, which stretch across the north side of the office. The gold throughout is the undeniable presence of the divine in nature. This piece also acknowledges the Gabrielino-Tongva people on whose ancestral homelands we stand. Untouched white sage is in the foreground of the piece. This sacred plant has become commercialized and poached in recent years, and leaving the white sage fully intact demonstrates our deep gratitude for the original stewards of this land that know each plant and animal by name.