Full name
Sheila Asato 安里志絵蕾
Title
Artist, Dreamworker, Educator and Japanophile
Location
Twin Cities, MN
Blurb
Sheila is a certified embodied imagination coach, dreamworker, teaching artist, and Japan specialist. She teaches and exhibits her work internationally.
Biography
Since childhood, dreams have been an integral part of Sheila's creative process. In 2010, she completed a three year certification program in Embodied Imagination work, which is a specialized way of working with dreams and memories through the body. In 2006, Sheila received an M.A. from St. Mary's University of Minnesota, where she focused on the healing function of the creative imagination in the arts and dreaming.
In 1982, Sheila completed a B.A. with honors in East Asian Studies and Fine Art at Gustavus Adolphus College. As part of her undergraduate studies, she was an exchange student at Kansai University of Foreign Studies, where she had the opportunity to live and study with a Zen calligrapher. Through the art of shodo - the way of the brush (Japanese calligraphy) - she learned the arts could become a powerful life long practice, supporting self cultivation, integrative health and spiritual development. Since then she has been fascinated by the creative relationship between the arts, dreaming and healing.
Bilingual in Japanese and English, Sheila has taught adults and children for more than thirty years, as well as facilitated workshops and presented her award winning work in the United States, Europe and Japan.
Today Sheila is a lecturer at the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota and is a faculty member at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. She also provides customized cross-cultural training for business people and their families, with a special emphasis on Japan – America relations.
In 2006, Sheila received the International Association for the Study of Dreams' (IASD) international student research award work for her original work on dreaming and creativity and is a past board member of IASD. In her freetime, she can often be found practicing ballroom and Latin dance.
Specialties
Public Speaking, Teaching, Workshops, Book Arts, Japanese Paper Arts, Visual Arts, Creative Process, Content Development, Dreamwork, Embodied Imagination Work, Arts and Healing, Cross-cultural Training, Japan