About Us
| Meet the Facilitators |
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Mara and Fran maintain a knowledge base that is both unique and varied. Combining their skills and expertise makes La Loba Arts a well-rounded centre of growth and learning.  As a young immigrant Mara Bouwman landed in that silent space between her first and second languages, and thereby discovered the power of communication through temporarily losing it. Once she learned English, and regained that powerful element of communication, she just as quickly discovered its limitations. Erasing the language barrier did not erase the barrier of a different cultural past. Still many of the things most familiar to her remained foreign to others. Ever since Mara has been seeking out the universal experiences of human nature, and the uniqueness with which that is expressed individually or culturally. Through story telling, theatre, her University studies (which combined psychology, sociology and education), relationships, heart-to-heart conversations and head-to-head conversations, her travels, her work with children, much time spent in nature, and explorations of the spirit, she has discovered there are always ways to move beyond barriers and to connect with self and others at a genuine level. In moments of “barrier frustration” her sister Fran, through actions, words and humour has always been there to remind her of what is possible. Mara is grateful to her community at the local First Nations Friendship Centre for sharing the traditional wisdom of balance and holistic being. In all her experiences Mara has discovered that creative exploration is one of those universal aspects of being human, and provides a powerful and kind way of communicating with oneself and rediscovering the essential.
Fran’s primary artistic endeavor is to capture the intensity of human experience through sculpture. Her compelling sculptures remind us of the depths of our human emotional experience as well as the necessity of being connected to the soul. Fran has worked extensively in her community as an artist, musician and youth coordinator. |
Fran Bouwman has been fascinated by the workings of both the spirit and the muse since she was a child. Running behind her older sister Mara through fields and forests, alongside riverbanks and sandy beaches imparted imaginings of fairies, ghosts, spirits, ancestors, histories of things and people gone before. Alongside these whimsical worlds that her sister Mara so marvelously spun, were the stricter views of the Christian Reformed Church. Influenced greatly by both worlds, Fran decided at nineteen to fly to Europe and explore the unexplained. Wandering through churches and castles, absorbed by paintings, murals and sculpture, climbing steeples and mountaintops, Fran’s experiential journeys eventually led back to her educational aspirations to study both philosophy and religion at the University of Toronto. Before graduating with a Religious Studies degree, Fran met Jeff Stone, a madman (in the best sense of the word), who would change the course of her life forever. Like her own personal prophet, he divined her destiny as sculptor. Since then Fran has created a dynamic portfolio. Her interest in the intuitive or spiritual aspects of art has remained steadfast and she has developed her own artistic approach into La Loba: Rediscovering the Essential through Creative Exploration.