About The Artist

Salyna Gracie is a Multi-media artist with a focus in Dance and Mixed-media Collage. 

My 25 year journey into the dance has lead me to foreign lands, near and far. I fell in love with Middle Eastern Dance and have enjoyed an endlessly rich and varied sampling of dances from around the world. Currently, I am director of the Red Lotus Dance Company, which offers performances in a variety of styles and fusion dance forms. As co-owner of The Studio, a movement center in Twisp, WA, I offer classes to teens and adults in several formats of Bellydancing. As a life long student of the dance, I continue to explore dance as a deepening spiritual practice, and a window into my soul.

My work as a mixed-media collage artist reflects my interest in the layering of levels of consciousness and the surreal nature of reality. My inspiration is to find universal experience through the deeply personal terrain of inner truth. My collages evoke dreamscapes that are at once mystical and confessional, exploring questions of identity, memory, legacy and inheritance.

Influenced by my twenty year career as a dancer, choreographer and dance instructor, my visual art endeavors to capture movement aesthetically and energetically through the narrative. Poetry is often the substrate of my work, becoming a lyrical mixture of concept and intuition, clarity and elegance. Recurring elements echo throughout my art create symbols of a personal mythology, a legend, that navigates internal landscapes and unlocks sensual treasures of light and shadow.

I am continually in awe of traditional techniques of collage; the simplicity of paper and scissors and glue which illuminate the synchronicity of shapes and stories. My work continues to evolve as I combine collage with printmaking techniques, book binding, beadwork and found objects. Mounted on simple wooden panels, each collage transcends its humble materials to become a living altar of spirit.