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Anne Schneider’s artistry goes beyond her masks, writing, Reiki, and Tai Chi – Anne is a life-style artist who successfully integrates her creative, physical, and spiritual practices. She is a woman who takes responsibility for her life and holds herself accountable on her life’s path. She artfully creates a sense of place and community in her home and in her studio. Her life is one of gracefully blended traditions that welcome all and encourage growth. |
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Anne’s Mission Statement: I, Anne Schneider, inspire myself and others to create and nurture an abundant, loving knowledge of self. Stepping back from your life to really examine it is like holding your own face-cast mask in the palms of your hands. It gives you a different perspective on yourself, one you may not recognize or “see” as your own. I experienced a similar opportunity to consider my life during the 2006 summer conference for the International Women’s Writing Guild (IWWG). Aptly named “Remember the Magic,” this conference is an annual gathering of about 300 women at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. Seventy workshops are offered during the week-long, five-classes-a-day symposium. Penelope Jewel’s class, “Practice of Personal Mastery,” led me on a genuine adventure of self-exploration. It ultimately led me to teach my own “Mask as Metaphor” workshop at Skidmore College. “Remember the Magic” 2006 was a true turning point in my life. So how does the “magic” of recognizing and walking your life’s path happen? When I read the description of Penelope’s personal mastery class, I knew I was to find the answer – within myself. Penelope offers tools to access and use what she believes you already have – “a very clear personal inner truth, and a center in which it lives physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.” Based on the individual’s personal value system, Penelope teaches how to make any decision “clearer, easier and more congruent with who you are.” Working day after day in that week of classes, as well as into many nights of soul-searching homework back at the Skidmore dorm, I came home with a one-sentence Mission Statement (“why you came to Planet Earth”) and a Vision Statement (“how and where you do what you do to bring yourself magnificently into this world”) – all based on my self-defined values. From that point on, my life changed dramatically – seeds of confidence and assurance began to germinate after 53 years of gestation. I began to “vision” my life as an abundant source of success and joy. And so it became just that. In fact, the growth was so sure and rapid that it startled me into realizing that I would need more guidance to walk gracefully on my path of personal mastery. I didn’t want to simply stumble into abundance. When “by chance” I first met Star Creativity Coaching’s Beverly Down (also an attendee at the IWWG’s 2006 summer conference), she introduced me to the concept of working with a creativity coach. Beverly challenged me to create the space to grow into that authentic person, to be present and engaged in the process, to surrender whatever need be, and to create a regular practice of the principles I learned. So we began our work, a partnership that would enable me to live the life I’d dreamed of living. Our work began in earnest at the end of 2006, and at Beverly’s suggestion I defined my dreams and goals as well as my resentments. This exercise enabled me to see the relationship between them. It also brought me a wonderful clarity about what I really did want for myself. I created priorities from which I could continue the pursuit of my goals. I gratefully created affirmations based on my resentments. I firmly believed, for the first time in my life, that I deserved success. All of this led to a creation of even greater positive energy that instantly began to transform my life - both internally and externally. The transformations happen repeatedly, in relationships and in my career. I’ve learned to pursue those people, places, and things that make me feel vibrant, passionate, and fully alive – all that supports my defined personal values and mission statement. When I told family and friends that I was working with a creativity coach, many asked WHY? After all, they told me, you already are such a creative person – you have a published book and continue to have new poems published, you lead and host creative arts workshops, you have a following of Tai Chi students and a growing Reiki practice. WHY, of all people, do you need a creativity coach? This is what I tell them… I claim my need for a personal guide to what I want most for myself. I am at peace knowing I walk gracefully into success – it is a process of discernment, and not a blind stumbling.
Anne is a native-born Houstonian. After graduating from St. Agnes Academy in 1971, she attended the University of Texas. She raised two daughters, facilitated Scripture study classes and led Marriage Encounter and Engaged Sponsor programs for Holy Family Catholic Church in Missouri City, Texas. Her creative work as a Camp Fire leader led to a directorship of summer camps. From 1986 to 1995, Anne was Corporate Treasurer of Living Windows Corporation; her family’s manufacturing business. After the sale of the company, she and her husband Harry built a log home near Hunt, Texas. They moved to the Texas Hill Country in 1995, where Anne pursued full-time writing and other arts. In 2005, the Schneiders moved to their home in the historic Methodist Encampment area at Mount Wesley in Kerrville, Texas. This area also became the home of Anne’s Ventana al Cielo Studio where she presents her face-cast mask workshops and hosts the workshops of guest artists from around the world. In 1990, Anne was a finalist for Best Texas Short Stories. As President of the Kerrville Writers Association since 1996, Anne has presented short story and poetry lectures in the community and was the founder and director of Kerr County’s Annual Students Short Story Contest for six years. Anne’s book Breath Found Along the Way is her first volume of poetry, published in the same year Schreiner University hosted her as the featured writer at its 2003 Annual Writers Conference. Anne served as editor and contributor for several Texas newsletters. Her poetry is published in journals and regional presses, including the Texas Poetry Calendar and the Austin International Poetry Festival’s anthology di*verse*city, winning her honorable mention in 2006 for her poem “The Tango.” Anne translates her literary creativity into the visual arts through mask making. She is a member of the Southwest School of Art and Craft in San Antonio. Since 1999, her face-casting mask workshops have been scheduled throughout south Texas and her masks exhibited in contemporary art galleries. A member of the Hill Country Arts Foundation, Anne led groups of eight to twelve year-old students to explore mask making at the 2004 Youth Summer Fine Arts Program. In the summer of 2006, Anne presented her workshop “Mask as Metaphor” at Skidmore College for the International Women’s Writing Guild’s 30th annual summer conference. She received the IWWG’s invitation to again present her mask workshop for the conference in 2008. Anne worked in 2007, with at-risk middle school students in the Art2Heart program to create masks to be worn by the young people in an adult play production on African influences across the world. Anne has been a student of Tai Chi since 1998. She was a volunteer leader for Tai Chi at Kerrville’s Dietert Senior Center for several years before teaching Tai Chi classes in a local art studio in 2001. She later moved her classes to Spirit Wind Java, a coffee shop and art space in Ingram, Texas. Anne now leads students at her Ventana al Cielo Studio in Kerrville. Anne began her study and practice of Reiki in Kerrville, Texas. In 2007, she attained Reiki’s fourth degree of “Reiki Master.” Anne wrote the text and art design for a deck of instructional cards for Reiki, due for production by Fair Winds Press in 2008. Anne maintains a Reiki practice at her Ventana al Cielo Studio.
• Penelope
Jewel • Southwest
School of Art & Craft |
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