The Yoga Modern team is growing fast! Please welcome the newest Assistant Editor, Barbra Brady, who will be leading up our Art Current! Barbra is a parayoga teacher, writer, and lover-of-all-things-art . With her rich experience as a museum curator and deep studies of yoga, we know Barbra will bring a unique and dynamic dimension to the Art Current here at Yoga Modern. We asked her to answer a few questions to introduce herself.

What does your yoga practice look like, on and off the mat?

Being aware, sensitive to what is right here, right now. My daily meditation/mantra/pranayama practice is the primary yoga focus, and when I am practicing (or teaching) yoga, this is the quality I look (feel) for while in asana…sensing one’s way through a yoga practice, or the world around. Swami Rama, my great-grand teacher said that yoga is the merging of our awareness to our actions. Our souls could not care less if we can touch our toes or do handstand in the middle of the room, it’s the quality of tapping into and residing in our inherent quiet awe and awareness. That’s it!

What inspires you?

Writing. Reading. Research. Connecting the dots of like-minded information–news, culture, photos, art, random acts of nature–and presenting them to others…”Hey, take a look at this!”  Things that feed my way of seeing and presenting the world in this way include living in Sonoma, California, visting new places, the color of my new “Hot Cocoa” rose bush, swimming, cycling, curating a meal, my two cats, my dear friends, and my teacher, Yogarupa Rod Stryker, and dialoguing art…yoga and art.

What made you want to tap into the Culture Current at Yoga Modern?

See my answers above! Prior to becoming a ParaYoga teacher, I was a museum curator. There, too, I invite people to look a little closer, below the surface (of paint or the body). Art is not just a pretty picture, or even a skillful hand at re-creating a perfect representation of a human figure. It is the seeing, the true seeing (I don’t mean with the eyes) of the artist’s soul, and their way of communicating that seeing. I look forward to inviting inquiry, inciting curiosity, a lingering “taste” of art in all of its manifestations. Art, like yoga may be found in the most unexpected of forms, you just need to pay attention. I have a cue I use in yoga class which nicely sums up the interconnectedness of yoga and art. It was written by a poet, Paul Valery, and is the title of a biography about visual/light artist Robert Irwin.  ”Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees.” Jai!

Seeing below the surface of things. Cultivating meaningful dialogue. Building community around the things that feed our soul. That’s what we’re all about here, and why we’re so happy to have Barbra on board.

If you would like to apply for an Assistant Editor position or contribute as a writer, check out our call for contributors here.