Hi I'm Mandi Lynn.

I never really know what to write when they ask for occupation. Honestly, it depends on the day. Neurospiciness runs deep with me. If I do the same thing too often, I get bored, so I have built my life to have variety baked in.

Some days I am in the bush with mostly neurodiverse kids, and we are developing our mana while learning survival skills and building out food forests.

Other days, I am working with women in nature to get past historical traumas so that they can finally flex the truth of who they are in the world.

Some days I am leading women to embrace their bodies and we are covering ourselves in golden clay and running naked into the surf on a body-positive women's retreat.

Some days, I'm in full WooWoo mode and I am teaching shamanic dance as a way of clearing energy blocks and getting to know spirit guides.

Other days, I am in a pottery studio having an artist date with myself with fingers in the clay and my mind in the clouds.

Some days I am judging photography at the National Photography Awards or making films or making photographs for exhibitions.

One day a bushcraft facilitator, one day a therapist, one day an artist, one day a regenerative educator...

But there is a through line with it all. It is all about creativity and community. It is all about regeneration and questioning what is no longer working and finding what does. It is about unlearning and learning at the same time. It is about dissolving and choosing what to create next.

It is about compassionate curiosity of the world and all of its shining gifts and ungrieved corners.

It is about learning every day how connected we all are, how the lie we were sold about individuality and standing tough and alone is a crock of shit and that we are so much better together.

The older I get, the more I learn how much I don't know. And the more humble I become to the inherent wisdom of nature, of which I am such a tiny part.

I'm the cheekiest.

Some of my conundrums, ironic bits, and eccentricities

I am spiritual but not religious

I believe in a force of love, and I honour it in every religion I find it. Everything I do is to try and create more of it in the world. I was raised a good Catholic girl in the deep south of America, but you could often find me reading Taoist and Buddhist texts even before I hit my teens. I believe we are all connected and that love is the creative core of the universe. I love feminine goddess imagery. I'm not a fan of the patriarchy, but I also don't want a matriarchy. I want balance. I guess you could say that balance and love is my religion.

I am a feminine feminist.

If a Sweet Southern Belle had a baby with an Amazon Warrior, that would be my personality. I like beautiful things, and I usually have dirt under my fingernails from mucking around in the garden or in the bush. Just as happy in a beautiful frock as I am in my Swazi's and gumboots.

Ex- Military Hippy Farmer

I spent 10 years in the US. Navy as both an enlisted person and an officer...Then I became a hippy organic farming artist.

I have a love/ hate relationship with Photoshop

I abhor how people use Photoshop and for what it is doing to our girls' and women's self-image, and at the same time, I am a master of it, and it is one of my primary art tools to create my allegorical art. I like to think I am using its powers for good.

I like people as they are and dolled up

I like people exactly as they are, and at the same time, I love to dress them up and do their makeup and showcase their inner beauty. I have a studio full of dress-ups for women. Tutu's tulle, silk, chiffon, kimonos, kaftans, furs, parasols, and avant-garde to shabby chic that I have collected over the years. I love it when little gasps happen and eyes widen when women walk in. It is a girl's paradise and I LOVE IT.

Nothing makes me happier than a woman who has admitted to hating parts of herself turns to me after our session and gushes the words, "I feel SO PRETTY!!!!" Those are the best days in the world.

Contact Details and links:

What to see my Art?

Need to get in touch? - mandi@mandi-lynn.com

Cellphone - +64-21-141-2646