About- Mel Hofmann

Mel’s life journey originally began with a range of challenging life events – which inspired a passion within her for exploring the far reaches of consciousness.

In 1971-1972, when Mel was 16, she had a Kundalini awakening which deepened her ability to tune into the realm of Spirit. Mel began her studies of healing in her 20’s, which led her to later explore Reiki, Reiki Tummo and Reconnective Healing. Eventually Mel developed her own intuitive healing style for working with clients - which has helped many people to heal and release trauma - plus pain of all kinds. Mel has also received a degree in fine art Textiles from California College of the Arts in Oakland. She is well known for producing fine artwork and photography which has strong emotional resonance.

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Artist's Statement

My work centers around self expression and enjoyment of the creative process. I started off my artistic journey by simply creating, in order to see what would happen, and to explore factors unbeknownst to me. With textiles, I began using resist techniques, which involves material binding, dyeing with different methods, and overall experimentation. I believe art is about the process of discovery, and that is what makes it so enjoyable. With my textiles, I also found it had become a way to narrate and visualize traumatic past experiences in my life in order to process and heal those experiences in a way I could tangibly feel and work with.

I also find dramatic and visual healing processes in art to be very successful in my work. With my first experiences making digital pieces with different techniques on Photoshop, I found myself quickly getting back into excitement and discovery of new possibilities with many different digital techniques. I found myself creating visceral scenery and surreal landscapes with images I captured of found objects. From digital art came an interest in photography, as well as visual journaling with mixed materials and abstraction, which sometimes incorporates the photos I have taken. While creating these visual journal collage pages, I began scanning them and using them to make a set of printed oracle cards. The visual journaling came from group work and sharing processes with others, and also inspired me to make larger scale mixed media paintings on canvas.

Most of my inspiration for what I create has come from creative processes and experimentations like these, but I also have felt inspired by other artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz and her work and process.

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Learn more about Mel through the following podcasts:

Interview with GuruNischan: About my history of living in a 3HO ashram as a teenager.

Interview with Tonya Dee: About Dargara Stick Divination and the process of creating my Oracle Deck.

Interview with Laurin Wittig: Laurin interviews me about Kundalini Awakening, Visual Journaling and the creation of my Oracle Deck.

Interview with Brent Spirit: Brent interviews me about my Kundalini awakening experiences.

Interview on Creative Soul Healing: Larissa Russell interviews me about the healing properties of creative expression.

Interview on Martyn’s Musings: Deck Reviewer Martyn Williams from the UK does an engaging interview about my deck on his YouTube channel.

Interview about Kundalini Awakening experiences: Posted on the When Lightning Strikes Channel.

Interview with Dr. Pamela Brewer: Psychologist Pamela Brewer of MyNDTALK interviews me about trauma healing, the creative process and my cure from hepatitis C.

"I met Mel when she was 13 years old. She was a student at a school where I was teaching. I was impressed with her artistic ability. She was working on batiks and she gave me a lovely square with her version of the tree of life. She embroidered a wall hanging for my apartment: “Om sweet Om.” Mel’s artistic skills matched her spiritual development: advanced! And she had a sense of humor. I try not to miss Mel’s art shows and always come away with a beautiful fine art piece: a lovely digital print of the web of life, a hummingbird photograph she took and then transferred to canvas. This hummingbird hangs on my living room wall surrounded by a plant. It gives my great pleasure. One year I had 12 hummingbird photos on a calendar she made. What a joy to be friends with such a talented and prolific artist."

Sallie Hanna Rhyne

My personal life journey

Hi, I’m Mel. I live in Berkeley, California with my wonderful wife, Jayne, and our cuddle-loving dog, Andie.

Our multitalented daughter Emily lives and works on the East Coast. Along with her late father, Stephen, she is in the 2021 Academy Award nominated documentary “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution.”

I’ve experienced a challenging odyssey of events in my life which awakened the mystic in me and inspired me to explore the far reaches of consciousness.