“ We may even say that, in love, the spiritual world awakens in the physical. The more truly a soul inhabits the spiritual worlds, the more it experiences lovelessness and lack of compassion as denial of spirit itself.” Rudolph Steiner
Hello! My name is Yohanna Jessup and I am the creator of Painting Sacred Spaces - an intuitive process that combines meditative awareness and wall painting techniques.
Deep inside I have always longed for a place that felt like home. The place where I belong. Where I feel enthusiastic, alive, inspired, fulfilled, held, nourished, nurtured, acknowledged. The place where I feel whole and loved.
The world I was born into did not reflect this innate desire. My environment seemed gray, dull, and monotonous. The people I saw did not live, but went about their routines mechanically. Lives dictated by necessity. By survival.
And I began to think that because I wanted something more, something with depth and meaning, that there was something deeply wrong with me.
I tried to fit in.
I tried to make myself be like my perception of what the world expected. And when I chose to do this part of me died inside. Actually - it did not completely die. The force of it turned inwards onto myself and became a tangled knot of fear, doubt, shame, self hatred, and mistrust. The more I tried to make myself fit, to make myself 'good enough' the more the knot thickened.
Once I acknowledged the massive desire for home - the place where I am free to live, love, and be - that's when the ties loosened. I began to have a choice. And I realized that my home is always there inside, even when I don't see or feel it.
My journey towards home is an ongoing adventure. It has led me to travel half way around the world, and recently, to relocate on the West Coast of the United States in the city of my birth. On my journey I have created works of art, deep loving relationships, and exciting career phases. I have experienced death, loss, disappointments, and struggles. The end of friendships, the passage of time. I invested hugely doing years of rigorous self development work, explored deep dark inner regions as well as soared to glorious heights. With experience and training I have helped others towards their journey home. As a meditation instructor I assist other people in overcoming limitations and discovering their magnificence.
On my journey home-wards I have cultivated and honed my passion for painting sacred spaces. These wall paintings grew from the desire to have my immediate environment reflect my inner home.
I create spaces that hold, inspire, rejuvenate, and ignite. Spaces that nourish and nurture. Spaces that support the inhabitants deepest desires and highest intentions. Spaces that harmonize and flow.
At home inside myself, I see people quite differently than they see themselves. A burst of light, a force of love. An eternal flame.
When I paint sacred spaces for clients I make it my mission to capture this beauty and imbue it into the client's environment. I do this because it makes a difference. When people feel at home, their lives open in profound and surprising ways.
Yohanna Jessup was born in Berkeley, CA and relocated to the East Coast at the age of 3. Her interest in art began when she became old enough to chew crayons, and has been painting rooms since she was 13 years old. In 1993 she graduated from the Maryland Institute, College of Art and Design in Baltimore. After graduation she moved to New York city where she worked as a freelance specialty painter as well as having a steady gig at the Tunnel Night Club where the visual themes changed weekly. There she helped install a room designed by artist Kenny Sharf called the “Cosmic Cavern” and painted democratically designed canvases in Mark Kostabi's stable of artist's.
Yohanna began a love affair with meditation in 2004 and since then has undergone an extensive training in meditation from the Clairvision School. She is an IST practitioner, as well as the creator of Painting Sacred Spaces – an intuitive process combining wall painting techniques and meditative awareness. Currently she works by commission, travelling internationally to create unique Painted Sacred Spaces and works on canvas. Yohanna gives talks, and is also a contributor at Dead Line News. She has come full circle and now resides close to the place of her birth in Berkeley, CA.
