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< Back Joanna Redfield Vaughn Certified Singing Tree Mural Facilitator Joanna is a Quaker who has been devoted to children, education and art for over four decades. She taught at the Austin Waldorf School for 11 years and was an elementary Art Specialist for 17 years at 10 of Austin’s public schools. She spent a year’s sabbatical at Pendle Hill, the Quaker retreat center outside of Philadelphia. She earned her B.F.A. from the Dayton (Ohio) Art Institute and her M.Ed. from University of Texas (Austin). Joanna Vaughn, BFA, M.Ed. is a Quaker who has been devoted to children, education and art for over four decades. She taught at the Austin Waldorf School for 11 years and was an elementary Art Specialist for 17 years at 10 of Austin’s public schools. She spent a year’s sabbatical at Pendle Hill, the Quaker retreat center outside of Philadelphia. She earned her B.F.A. from the Dayton (Ohio) Art Institute and her M.Ed. from University of Texas (Austin). Laurie and Joanna met at an educational conference at University of Texas in Austin where Laurie was creating The Pewen Singing Tree of Radical Love. Joanna came because The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy was one of her favorite books as a child and was curious about the project. Since retirement in 2011 she has become a grandmother, and a certified Singing Tree facilitator . She teaches children’s classes at the Contemporary Museum’s Art School and senior citizens through ArtSpark’s Mobile Art program. Her first Singing Tree Project is called The Oak and Linden Singing Trees of Wholeness and Belonging , bringing together the Friends Meeting of Austin, Austin tan Cerca de la Frontera and Escuelita Amiguitos. Joanna has facilitated: The Post Oak Singing Tree of Spiritual Refreshment for the Long Haul More Oak and Linden Singing Trees of Wholeness and Belonging More

Interviews Conversations Around Peace-Building Through Art - Inspired by Nature Peace Podcast | Empowering Youth and Adults Through Art and Collaboration | 2025 Laurie Marshall and The Singing Tree Mural Project - Musea Museum Interview | 2024 Painting for Peace - Bioneers Interview - Laurie Marshall | 2023 Soul Creativity - Laurie Marshall and Rivera Sun | 2022 International Day of Peace Celebration with KTEP | 2022 Soul Creativity - Laurie Marshall | 2022 Rappahannock Radio - Interview with Kiaya Abernathy and Laurie Marshall 2022 Interview with Jack Canfield and Laurie Marshall | 2022 TreeSisters Creative InnerViews with Laurie Marshall "The Singing Tree Project" Peace Community Magazine About the Singing Tree Project | 2022 | Article Think Tech Hawaii and Laurie Marshall Unity Through Creativity, Not Force (The Creative Life) | 2022 | Video Laurie Marshall and Peace Podcast Barbara Gaughen-Muller and Laurie Marshall | 2022 | Video Interview with Laurie Marshall and Mark Lewis Mark Lewis Wagner and Laurie Marshall | 2021 | Video Supporting Children Through COVID-19 Interview with Laurie Marshall and Gwilda Miyak | 2020 | Audio Kindness, A Family Value Real Hope Lifestyle and Laurie Marshall | 2020 | Video Interview with Laurie Marshall and the SingingTree Project Mark Lewis Wagner and Laurie Marshall | 2020 | Audio Peace Building Through Art – Inspired by Nature: The Singing Tree Collaborative Mural Project A conversation about Peace with Three German Social Work students | 2020 | Video Middle Age Can Be Your Best Age: Simple Tools for Stressed Out Parents Interview with Laurie Marshall and Roy Richards | 2020 | Audio Permission to be Powerful The power of holding space for children with Michelle Maree and Laurie Marshall | 2020 | Video Interview with Laurie Marshall Laurie Marshall and Rae Luskin | 2018 | Video Learning from Nature Interview with Laurie Marshall and Haley Campbell | 2017 | Audio What Can We Learn From Nature? Interview with the Human Current: Casual Conversations about Complexity | 2017 | Audio 016, Ignite Creativity in Every Classroom, Edspiration Podcast, International School Climate Institute Interview with Laurie Marshall and John Linney 2015 | Audio

< Back Sweta Chawla Certified Singing Tree Mural Facilitator Sweta Chawla PharmD, MS is a Former Professor of Pharmacy and Clinical and Residency Director turned Speaker, Facilitator & Leadership Coach and Author. Sweta Chawla, PharmD, MS is a Former Professor of Pharmacy and Clinical and Residency Director turned Speaker, Facilitator & Leadership Coach and Author. She supports organizations, highly driven professionals, budding creatives and entrepreneurs to reinvent how they work and lead. Through her natural leadership model, she empowers her clients to create personal structures that leverage their natural brilliance. As a result they experience more passion, impact and meaning without compromising their integrity and well-being. She is a certified Art of Sacred Circle, Singing Tree and Step into Your Moxie Facilitator. Her training and passion for creating brave and encouraging spaces of expression through art, self-awareness and vocal empowerment has provided her the skills to create meaningful impact within several groups and communities. Dr. Sweta is the author of the book I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For...Now What? and contributor to the award-winning Anthology She’s Got This: Essays on Standing Strong and Moving On. She has published articles and essays in several journals, magazines and has spoken on many stages and panels, including the White House.. Sweta has facilitated: The Willow Singing Tree of Trust More The Singing Tree of Reproductive Freedom that Restores Mother Earth More The Redwood Singing Tree of Healing and Freedom from Fear More The Albany Oak Singing Tree of Strength and Happiness More The Redwood Singing Trees of Holding Community Through Unity More

< Back Emmanuel “Emma” Kavuma Certified Singing Tree Facilitator Emmanuel “Emma” Kavuma is a self-taught artist born in Masaka, Uganda. Emmanuel “Emma” Kavuma is a self-taught artist born in Masaka, Uganda. He was orphaned at age four, during the AIDS epidemic, and was sponsored by an Austrian family that helped him practice painting and drawing through pen and pencil friendships, in which he would send pieces of his artwork.When that sponsorship ended, Emma joined high school with the intervention of a member of parliament. after helping him create his portrait in pencil. During this time he served as tour guide an artist at the Kasubi Tombs and the Buganda Kingdom’s royal palace in Mengo, painting on backcloth. This experience engendered a love of adventure, and Emma has taken his art to Zanzibar, Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria, Ghana, Sweden, the Netherlands, and beyond. Emma has done numerous fundraisers for animals and civic activism. His passion is to see all youth and children become creative. He says: “It is only through this that we can change the world.” Both Emma and Kanizius are enrolled in the Singing Tree Facilitators Training though scholarship support.

< Back Inner Landscapes by El Paso Art Teachers Inner Landscape paintings with El Paso Art Teachers brought together by El Paso’s Arts Alliance. Previous Next

Mural made with homeless youth of Marin County. < Back Marin’s homeless youth get a hand – ART Mural project gives Marin’s homeless youth a hand – and a paintbrush Mural made with homeless youth of Marin County. Mural made with homeless youth of Marin County. Sam Laidig knows the ropes of being homeless. He knows which public bathrooms and parks are the cleanest and which coffee or doughnut shops open the earliest. He’s become a pro at staying awake all night to guard his belongings. He is 19 and one of the estimated 2,600 homeless youth in Marin County – one of the nation’s wealthiest regions. “I hope that I’m a post-homeless youth of Marin,” Laidig said with a wry laugh as he worked on a mural intended to depict a rosier future. “I spent the last few nights in a park bathroom in San Rafael, but I think I just found a place to live.” Laidig is part of a mural project organized by two Marin County nonprofits, Ambassadors of Hope and Opportunity, and Unity Through Creativity, and supported by organizations including the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art. Two days a week through July and August, youths gather in a home in San Rafael to paint, and to share their stories. They talk about what they’ve been through, and what they’d like for the future. There are teenagers who are homeless or at risk of being homeless, and there are high school students who are involved because they want to make a difference and help a hidden population. The homeless and at-risk youth are paid for their work on the mural. “It’s a community-wide mural project called ‘The Seasons of Hope Singing Tree,’ ” said Zara Babitzke, the founder of Ambassadors of Hope and Opportunity, an organization begun to create a safety net of housing and guidance. “It’s for this overlooked or forgotten youth population.” Babitzke’s program helps youth ages 16 to 25 who are “push outs,” abandoned by their parents, or who have “absent parents,” parents who are unable to parent because of mental illness, incarceration or drug or alcohol dependency. The program provides emergency shelter, rooms with host families or apartments with peers. It also links youth to jobs, scholarships for college, counseling, and legal and medical aid. “I envisioned the whole community coming together as ambassadors of hope and opportunity for young people without families,” she said, as a group of teenagers painted and others created leaves and birds to be placed on the painted limbs. Babitzke partnered with Unity Through Creativity’s Laurie Marshall, who started engaging at-risk youth in art in 1999, and over the years has spearheaded the creation of 24 murals, with four 8-by-8-foot freestanding panels showing the same tree in four seasons. The finished murals are expected to go on a traveling exhibition to nearly two dozen Marin County schools and other organizations. Kaila McDonald, who is 21 and formerly homeless, serves as the program director for Ambassadors of Hope and Opportunity. “I became homeless at 17 when I was taken out of my home by child protective services,” said McDonald, who attends UC Berkeley. “We are not as visible as the adult homeless because we are couch surfing and we sleep in cars. I slept in my car. I was working three jobs. I just wanted to go to college. I was helped by Zara and her program.” Laidig, working nearby, said, “Being a part of this is great. I get to do art, which I haven’t really had the chance to do. The sentiment is good. It’s nice to be around people who care.” Article write by Julian Guthrie, San Francisco Chronicle, Aug 17, 2012 (used with permission) UTC is no longer involved with Ambassadors of Hope and Opportunity (AHO) due to their discrepancies and malpractice. Previous Next

Interview with Laurie Marshall and Roy Richards | 2020 < Back Middle Age Can Be Your Best Age: Simple Tools for Stressed Out Parents Interview with Laurie Marshall and Roy Richards Social distancing along with your children while furloughed, unemployed or working from home is making parenting much harder. It’s even more difficult if you as a parent must assume an active role in your child’s home schooling. Guest, veteran educator, author and bullying prevention expert, Laurie Marshall offers creative solutions that can help your whole family get along and together safely blow off stress during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Tune in for suggestions on how to make home-based learning fun while broadening your children’s horizons. Discover safe ways your teens and pre-teens to can socialize during the pandemic, rather than simply telling them what they can’t do. Uncover the benefit of taking three deep breaths before lashing out at a family member and how to convince your kids that temporary social isolation will pay off for them in the long run. Host Roy Richards explains why in allocating limited time and financial resources, it makes sense to “enjoy and employ.” Previous Next

69dd1a2e-a5ab-4d8a-8029-c3b0b31c2795 Singing Tree Murals of 2006 11 Cherry Singing Tree of Hope More Previous Next

3fa9fc3b-315a-4d5d-a517-bb406346d314 Singing Tree Murals of 2012 29 Seasons of Hope Singing Tree – Spring of Sustainability More 28 Seasons of Hope Singing Tree- Autumn of Abundance More 27 Seasons of Hope Singing Tree –Summer of Serenity More 26 Seasons of Hope Singing Tree – Winter of Wellness More 23 The Baka Singing Tree of Thanks More 22 Singing Tree of Diversity II More Previous Next

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Embody Kind Book Bonus Congratulations on accepting this free gift of instructions to make a mini-Singing Tree Collaborative Mural. Enjoy! SESSION 2 1.5 hours 11. Draw the tree on the earth with chalk on the galaxy you had prepared in Session 1. 12. Paint the tree on the earth. It’s fun to think about where the imaginary sun is and add light and shadow to the tree and the earth accordingly. You can portray the earth imaginatively or realistically. You get to decide together. Add details to the galaxy. Some people can paint while others make the paper elements 13. Make a stencil of the leaves of your tree. Manilla folders are good. 14. Use a template of birds from the Unity Through Creativity (UTC) website or draw your own. Make sure they fly both directions. Use the star template on the UTC website 15. Trace stencils on paper. Two or three leaves for each person. 16. Cut out leaves, birds and stars. Chat away – about your theme or whatever you want. SESSION 3 1.5 Hours 17. Make images on your leaves, birds and stars using colored pencils that envision a positive future to your challenge. Fill in all the white space of each element. Put your passion and love on to the paper. Trust your hand. We’ve been drawing for 60,000 years at least and only writing for 5000. Leaves often symbolize service, what action you will take to bring about the positive future. Birds often symbolize the dream of the positive future. Stars often stand for loved ones who are no longer with us. You can attach whatever symbolism you want. We are meaning-making animals. 18. Share the symbolism of what you have created with each other. 19. Place the paper elements on the painting. Experiment with locations. Using the Singing Tree story, the birds are flying to the tree. 20. Using the acrylic gloss medium, cover the whole paper, placing the paper elements in your chosen locations with a layer of gloss medium underneath and a layer of gloss medium over the top. Be sure to get all the air bubble out. 21. As the medium dries (15 minutes), share your experience of the Singing Tree you’ve created – your feelings, your thoughts, your appreciations for each other. 22. Put the image on the wall using push pins. Look at it together and decide where it can go to bring joy to your small community, to your larger community, to the world. 23. Decide on your next project. 24. Send Unity Through Creativity (admin@UnitythroughCreativity.org ) your high-quality Singing Tree photo and a description of your experience creating it: What you learned, felt, discovered and/or were surprised by. Please also note “freegift.”Thank you for adding to the Forest of Singing Trees. The whole world is invited!!

cee4a457-0cde-4cfe-a9a4-0ce82f4864ac Singing Tree Murals of 2021 102 The Olive Singing Tree of Evolving Elders More 101 The Singing Tree of Love and Inclusion More 99 Oak and Linden Singing Trees of Wholeness and Belonging More 98 Singing Tree of Love Born Out of the Darkness More 97 Mahogany Singing Tree to Reunite Children with Their Families More 96 The Cypress Willow Singing Tree of Growing Through What We're Going Through More 95 Banyan Singing Tree of Living Wisdom More 91 The Willow Singing Tree of Celebrating Our True Value More 90 Apple Singing Tree of Nourishment More 89 The Magnolia Singing Tree of Our Inner Wellspring More 86 The Olive Singing Tree of Health More 84 Mango Singing Tree of Peace More 55 The Juniper Singing Tree of Diné Traditions More Previous Next

< Back Bobbie Rae Jones Certified Singing Tree Facilitator Bobbie Rae Jones believes arts is an essential aspect to solving our social problems. A credentialed visual arts educator with over twenty years of experience instructing groups of all ages in a variety of modalities. Bobbie Rae Jones believes arts is an essential aspect to solving our social problems. A credentialed visual arts educator with over twenty years of experience instructing groups of all ages in a variety of modalities, she recently served disaster relief and long term recovery for 2018 Camp fire, 2020 COVID pandemic, 2020 Bear fire, and 2021 Dixie fire. She completed an MA in Art and Education: PreK-Older Adult in 2018, where she researched how to use Art Education and Socially Engaged Art to build community. Bobbie specializes in developing the muscle of the imagination as a tool, and combined with critical thinking she facilitates creatively visioning powerful results with the individual and group. Using trauma-informed practices, her intent is to transform populations affected by multiple disasters into thriving communities, aspiring to offer a positive experience to every person as a means to transform trauma into beauty, build peace and community through the arts. Bobbie has facilitated: The Singing Tree of Reproductive Freedom that Restores Mother Earth More The Magnolia Singing Tree of Our Inner Wellspring More Camp Fire Five Year Memorial More

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