The Institute of Philosophy in the Arts, Architecture and Humanities
Salon on the Spiritually Creative Life

[Photography by Nathaniel Taylor]

THE SALON ON THE SPIRITUALLY CREATIVE LIFE

Our 30th Year Continues
... still on Zoom!

Please join Carol Soucek King virtually on
Sunday, March 8, 2026
Via Zoom
To discuss one of God's essential aspects
illuminated throughout her book
Under the Bridges at Arroyo del Rey

Possibility

With Main Presentation

Karen Silton Ph.D.

Seeding Possibilities
with Art Making
"Beauty, spiritual grace, and creativity
draw from the sacred."

Scroll Down for:
Morning's Agenda
Speaker's Presentation and Bio
Zoom Info
March Lyrics & Poems
2026 Salon Dates/Themes

9:30 am Pacific Standard Time
Zoom Room Arrivals and
Himalayan Singing Bowls by Healing Arts Practitioner
Janet Martorello
 

10 am until noon – Program

Meditation
with
Nan Rae
Artist/Teacher/Author

Nan Rae’s latest published book – now available on Amazon
INSPIRED THOUGHTS ON LOVE!
Published by Laughing Elephant Books
Now available on Amazon
Personalized copies may be ordered at NanRaeStudio.com

Opening Song

"Why"
[On the Wings of Chopin]

Dean LeGrand Carlston, DDS
Composer/Singer/Instrumentalist
©Dean LeGrand Carlston, Lyric ©,
music based on F. Chopin Op. 28, No. 7 Largo

Dean welcomes us to listen to and download his music at no charge by accessing his personal website: deancarlston.com

Salute to March Birthdays,
Special Congratulations, & Prayers
with
Graham Lance Richardson
Retired Westside Realtor after 35 years.
Licensed Plumber & Gas Fitter.
Certified Welder to 100%,
and Frequent Presenter at The Salon.

Main Presentation:

Karen Silton MA Ph.D.

Seeding Possibilities
with Art Making
"Beauty, spiritual grace, and creativity
draw from the sacred."

"Great Egret" - Mosaic by Karen Silton

“The core of my work as an artist and art teacher-facilitator springs from the understanding that beauty, spiritual grace, and creativity draw from the sacred. In my presentation, I describe how the process of artmaking with unhoused women can seed an infinite space of possibilities where creative potential touches the divine unchained from external demands. With this perspective and vision, artmaking emerges as a practice of awakening and discovery leading to inner liberation and return to the wholeness and oneness into which we are all born.”

🎨

“Before and throughout my career as an artist and art teacher-facilitator, I have been impassioned by the ethics of social justice and the seminal need for inner liberation. I have brought these two pursuits together in my work with unhoused women and other marginalized individuals and communities which has culminated with the founding of my nonprofit, Communities Create (www.communitiescreate.org) in 2018.

“As a professional artist, I have developed expertise in a variety of media including painting, ceramics, glass fusing and mosaics. This artwork has been widely shown in solo and group exhibitions in local and high-end juried art shows, all of which has cultivated a devoted following of collectors worldwide. In my calling as an artist, I have both volunteered and been commissioned to create multiple mosaic tile murals for Kehillat Israel, Pacific Palisades, Comunidad Cesar Chavez, Boyle Heights, Westfield Village, Woodland Hills, and The Getty Villa, Malibu, the latter which received special recognition as “Best Exterior Mosaic by the Society of American Mosaic Artists.”

“As an arts educator, I have taught in public and private settings with diverse populations and all skill levels. By inviting renowned national and international mosaic artists to teach in my studio, I have helped expand mosaic education and attracted numerous in and out-of-state new and mature artists. My collaborations, diversely constellated through volunteering, commissions, contracts and grants, include Pierce Community College Extension, Skirball, Motion Picture and Television Fund, The Getty, Westfield Corp and the Boys and Girls Club of West Hills. For the past decade or more, I have focused on artmaking with marginalized communities. This work includes multiple partnerships: the Downtown Women’s Center (DWC), Skid Row, People Assisting the Homeless (PATH), Orange County, and Safe Place for Youth, Venice (SPY).

“With the advent of Covid, the mosaic classes held in my studio with small groups that focused on mosaic skill development and nurturing a sense of belonging and agency, temporarily shifted to virtual classes. As illustrated with my workshop with unhoused women described in a recent publication, the online experience was surprisingly incredibly successful (Creative Critical Pedagogies, in Using Arts-Based Approaches for Online and In-Person Learning, M. C. Desyllas and E. Papouli, Eds.). For the past eight years, I have held my Arts for Wellbeing workshops with unhoused women at the DWC.

“The core, and unique, philosophy and design of these workshops is their combined co-creation with participants and organizations, trauma-informed approach, art which is self-directed, and accompaniment.”

Following her master’s degree, Karen Silton completed in 2024, a doctorate in Depth Psychology with Specialization in Community, Indigenous and Eco-psychology (CLIE) at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, CA.

Karen Silton, Ph.D
Founder, Communities Create
Communitiescreate.org
info@communitiescreate.org
kareaware@gmail.com
310.422.4900

Music Interlude
by
Douglas Decker
Recording Engineer/Musician/Composer
"Breathe On Me, Breath of God"
by Edwin Hatch/Robert Jackson

Poetry Reading
with
Patricia Ferber
Sculptor/Painter/Educator/Curator/Poet
"Creating Possibilities"

Followed by Discussion

Opening the Discussion will be
Nino Wong, designer/business leader/Volunteer
Chairman of the Chinese Garden Docents,
Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens.

Gregory Joseph Firlotte, artist/designer/curator/author and award-winning poet, and also I am pleased to say my longtime admired associate at Designers West Magazine, has published the first-ever coffee table book on the history of West Hollywood – From WeHo with Love. For the March Salon on “Possibility," I invited Greg to share his recent poem "Hardships" – which has been selected by PoetrySoup.com to appear in the upcoming anthology which showcases poems from 41 countries. This poem was written in honor of Greg’s mother Mabel whom I also was privileged to know. Mabel endured the hardships of the Great Depression and oftentimes had little-to-nothing to eat. Yet instead of diminishing her spirit and love of others, she used this extremely challenging experience to be ever and always sensitive to others in need. Following Dr. Karen Silton’s sensitive presentation of taking art to the homeless and others who have felt that creating beauty was no longer within their realm of possibility, it seems especially appropriate to share Greg’s “Hardships.”

All are invited to continue sharing thoughts on
Possibility.

until noontime

Finale
by
Susie Katharine Shaw
Actress/Vocalist
"I'll Be Easy to Find"
by Burt Howard 1959

To conclude Susie will lead us in Richard King's favorite
Native American Prayer

Love Faith and Joy - Carol Soucek King, MFA, PhD, Founder
Please respond if attending:
kingcarol@aol.com or 626/449-1238

For the time being, the Salon will continue to meet on Zoom. When appropriate, we will meet in person once again at Arroyo del Rey.

For access to the Salon on Zoom:

This meeting is being hosted by Zoom.
There is no charge to use this service.

Before the Salon on Sunday:
You will need to either go to the Zoom website, www.zoom.us, and register for a free account to access this meeting through your web browser or download and install the Zoom application on your device.

If you download the application to your device, you do NOT need to register for a free account. To download the Zoom application, click on this link... https://zoom.us/download

For any questions or assistance,
email Curtis McElhinney at Curtis@curtisvision.com

Three Songs, Two Poems

"Why"
[On the Wings of Chopin]
©Dean LeGrand Carlston Lyric music
based on F. Chopin Op. 28, No. 7 Largo

Commentary on the Lyric for the song WHY:

I am appalled at the lack of interest many of my acquaintances exhibit regarding political discourse. It is my belief that in order to preserve freedom for ourselves and our children, we all should do our best to become knowledgeable through political involvement. It takes courage to stand up to lies, misrepresentations, and half-truths. While our constitution gives us the right to express ourselves verbally, it doesn’t anywhere say that we citizens should not stand up and call out these falsehoods. Failure of the general citizenry to be vigilant in defending truth has led us to this terribly divided world. The lyric of this song expresses my concern that lack of political engagement has placed us on the precipice of losing our right to free speech and self defense as has happened in so many other countries.

~

Why do we not confront darkness,
when we know Light through us can prevail.

Why when falsehoods are uttered do we shrink
and fail to oppose?

Why do half-truths stand un-contested
when we know sheep will be led astray?

Truth brings Knowledge and Wisdom.

Wisdom brings power, overcomes darkness
and holds evil at bay.

Speak the Truth, Be the Light 

Dean L. Carlston DDS

"Breathe on Me, Breath of God"
by Edwin Hatch/Robert Jackson

Breathe on me, breath of God
Fill me with life anew
That I may love what Thou dost love
And do what Thou wouldst do

Breath on me, breath of God
Until my heart is pure
Until with Thee I will one will
To do or to endure

Breathe on me, breath of God
'Til I am wholly Thine
Till all this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine

Breathe on me, breathe of God
So shall I never die
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity

"I'll Be Easy to Find"
by Burt Howard, 1959

I'll be easy to find when love comes looking for me.

I'll stand there with my arms out, so that I'll be easy to see.

No hide and seek, no guessing games will I play.

When love comes in to speak my name I'll say,
"Right this way."

The stars may fall from above,
the moon may fade out of sight.

But angels will be smiling and my love will light up the night.

Though fools may hide their feelings and tell us love is blind.

As for me, I'll be easy to find.

"Creating Possibilities"
by Patricia Ferber, 2026

Sunbeams and moonbeams light the way,
Through mystical passages, we encounter every day.

All that appears may not be so,
Like Alice in Wonderland,
when she fell through the rabbit hole.

Change a color, a thought, a verse,
Sing hallelujah when in a church.

Reach out to the mountains, the desert sands afar,
The oceans deep, wish upon a star.

Turn left, turn right, look down,
look up to the heavens above.
Lighting the way.

"Hardships"
by ©Gregory Joseph Firlotte, Year Posted 2025

The hardships, the struggles, the adversities
are real, for we all share in them
with the millions whose miseries have been known
the world over and across the ages
those who have been discarded and ignored
and hidden in the dark with souls torn in pieces
like scraps upon heaps, piled up and forgotten
hoping not to be buried and shunned and abandoned
the hungry and the poor
the dispossessed, the downtrodden
the stepchildren of ignorance
the orphans of misguided hope
shuttered in silence, oppressed for no reason
guilty with no trial, crying out for acceptance
for mercy, for kindness, for a word that is tender
for a hand fully open, for a smile that is real
for love that is honest, for a love never fading
for a love that is free and given without
thought of repayment, or implied expectations.
Yes, these hardships, struggles and adversities
are not just his, nor just theirs.
They are ours
with or without our knowledge
or our approval,
in spite of our naiveté
or our genuine intentions
or our self-feigned pity.
These hardships, struggles and adversities
are at every turn of Life
whether we see them or not
for they never disappear
even if we close every window
or bolt every door by day or through night
they can be heard on the wind
and felt in the air
they travel over land
over water, over here and over there
invisible they may be
these hardships, struggles and adversities
are ours together
not just his, nor just theirs.
The answer is simple,
complex, overwhelming,
and freeing at once.
The answer is found within
that one someone, that one anyone
who will listen
who will love
who will speak
who will care.

All 2026 Salon dates and themes

STABILITY
Sunday, January 11, 2026

GROWTH
Sunday, February 8, 2026

POSSIBILITY
Sunday, March 8, 2026

FAITH
Sunday, April 12, 2026

GRATITUDE
Sunday, May 10, 2026

HARMONY
Sunday, June 14, 2026

UNDERSTANDING
Sunday, July 12, 2026

KINDNESS
Sunday, August 9, 2026

HUMOR
Sunday, September 13, 2026

LOVE
Sunday, October 11, 2026

HEALING
Sunday, November 8, 2026

SPIRITUALITY
Sunday, December 13, 2026

Please let us know which salons you can attend by replying to KingCarol@aol.com or (626) 449-1238.

With all loving thoughts and hoping to see you soon!

Carol Soucek King, M.F.A., Ph. D.
Email: KingCarol@aol.com  
 

CAROL SOUCEK KING MFA, PhD © 2002-2025 All rights reserved