Wojahn documents Hozho Healing Workshop.

In August 2020 Mark Wojahn was commissioned to document Kristina Nez Begay's shamanic Sacred Directions workshop in Whitelaw, Wisconsin.

Kristina Nez Begay with an Eagle feather and an ancestor drum. All photos by Mark Wojahn

Kristina Nez Begay is a Wisconsin based healer, her business is called Hozho Healing. On her website it describes her as,

"Kristina Nez Begay is a member of the Dine’ (Navajo) Nation.  She has an Associate’s degree in Liberal Arts from the Milwaukee Area Technical College, a Bachelor’s of Arts in American Indian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and continues her studies in Metaphysical Science and Parapsychology. 

She is a spiritual medium, shamanic energy medicine practitioner, Reiki Master, Access Consciousness Bars practitioner, past life regression facilitator, instructor at a sound healing school, drum maker, and ordained minister."

Students, Amanda & Peter, meditating on their "Heartspace".Wojahn spent two days documenting the Sacred Directions workshop. He noticed a profound effect of the teachings with the students. Many responded to Kristina about the insights they recieved on their inner journey and meditations. Students often journaled about these downloads and shared them with others.

Two time Sacred Directions student Amanda Jacobs-Haase, when asked which of the directions were her favorite? replied, "Choosing a favorite direction is tantamount to asking me which appendage is my favorite. Each direction is a personal experience. An experiential re-learning of who you are and an unlearning of rules and fear-based self protection methods you’ve used to self sabotage. In my opinion, I feel like the first two directions (South and West) are more of a breaking down of the things you no longer need. This includes shadow work and finding ancestral patterns. The second pair of directions (North and East) are about building yourself back up and calling to you the things you want to grow. Each direction is a deep dive into our own selves and therefore I cannot choose a favorite. HOWEVER, I will say that as I am about to experience the sacred direction North shortly, I am very excited about soul retrievals. The thought is that during times of trauma, a piece of our soul fragments off and goes to the belly of Mother Earth to stay safe. During soul retrievals, we work in ceremony using shamanic techniques to bring back those healed pieces to ourselves or others. It’s very powerful and healing".  

A student holding a "talking stick" as she conveys her experiences to the group. The Sacred Directions class covered many areas of the shamanic path including; ritual, ceremony, drumming, energy healing and many others.

A student meditates in nature during the Sacred Directions course. The students were taught how to use their own inner energy to assist with the healing of others. Kristina was there to supervise and guide them during this process. She told Wojahn that she often takes a bit of a backseat position, and supervises from afar. She says she encourages her students to listen to their inner voice and their ancestors as they heal others. While she is always there for advice and support, she doesn't believe in micromanaging the students as they learn and experiment with the healing methods. 

Students work on fellow student Laurel Ziemeinski as Kristina looks on. All photos by Mark Wojahn

Sacred Directions student Laurel Ziemeinski says, "The West direction is super deep, diving down to issues you may barely be aware of. Working with ancestors and ancient patterns that follow your ancestral lineage, manifesting through you. You learn how to break these ties so you can begin walking a new path. I loved both South & West directions but found the West very interesting. "

Mark Wojahn felt honored and almost a higher calling to do this work. He continues to be available to document your life or business through photography or video. To see more pictures from this commission, pls DM him.

Wojahn Art Directs Miniature build

In January of 2020, Mark Wojahn's prop shop art directed and built a model town for the Duke Cannon company's advertising campaign. Wojahn hired Tiny Proctor as his lead builder and Benjamin Bayne with Kellie Larson dayplaying on the build. Together they executed a 9x9' layout of; dozens of buildings, a resin lake, a woodland stream, a farm & UFO, a downtown with a warehouse district and a neighboborhoods. This was built in the HO scale of 1/87 to the inch.

The model town had its' challenges, as there is an almost infinite amount of detail you can include in a miniature set. With Wojahn's shop working on a tight schedule, of a 9 day build, and closely with the production company and the ad agency, Wojahn and his team were able to pull a fine degree of detail on a modest budget. One item had to be 3D desgned and printed, it's an inch tall statue of man holdig a toilet, you can see the statue in the picture below lower right corner.

Builder Tiny Proctor adjust a miniature on set. The buidlings were a combo platter of minature kits purchased at the hobby shop, to pre-assembled buildings. Here is scenic painter Ben Bayne aging the Woodshop set. 

Painter, Ben Bayne, paints a model. The layout and models were built in Wojahn's and Proctor's studio in the Casket Arts Complex in NE Minneapolis.

The model layout under construction in Proctor's shop.

The layout, once completed, was moved to Cinequipt studios and shot in their Studio C. Once in the studio, DP Steve Holm used a microscopic lens at F14 to shoot the minatures. The high F stop required over 60,000 watts of light to illuminate the set, Gaffer Dave Palm used a 20K mimic the sun.

Director Cory Bauer illustrates the positon prop flames to builder Tiny Proctor

Channel Z Post's Cory Bauer directed and Kelly Nelson produced the spots in 2 days of shooting. Minneapolis agency Hunt Adkins was the advertising film. Many of the spots are now live on the Duke Cannon Youtube channel and elsewhere on the web.

Tuscaloosa premieres at Nashville!

The film Tuscaloosa, based on the book by the same name by W. Glasgow Phillips and staring Natalia Dyer of Stranger Things, premeired at the Nashville Film Festival on October 5th. The film was directed by Philip Harder and production designed by Mark Wojahn in 2017. Wojahn led the art dept and coordinated set decoration, props, construction and paint. He had a great crew of Sarah Jean Shervin as his decorator, Elizabeth Richardson as his propmaster, Cooper Sheehan as construction boss and Benjamin Bayne as charge scenic. Many others supported these dept heads. The challenge was large for the crew to supply a vintage 1970s Alabama look in Minnesota locations. The team rose to the challenge.

Tuscaloosa - Festival Trailer from Patrick Riley on Vimeo.

The big set to design and build was the BBQ shack. The shack took over seven design drafts and 3 different locations to find the right fit for the film. Director Harder pushed Wojahn to build something that felt historic and that alligned with the directors image of the deep south. They both agreed that the below sketchup was a good basic design to start the build.

Decorator Shervin scored big points and found an organic farm in Anoka county that was to become the location for the shack, drive in movie and grandpas house.

Construction started and the crew transformed this garlic drying shed into the films Paradise BBQ shack.

After much work, sweat and skill the shack was complete.

Wojahn is very proud of his crew and hard work they all performed to get this film across the art dept finish line.  According to the producer Patrick Riley, the film will play festivals in 2019 and have a general release in spring 2020. To see more info on Tuscaloosa go to their website.

@Tuscaloosa Movie, #Tuscaloosamovie

Wojahn begins new film project!

Mark Wojahn announces he has begun a new documentary film project on the dancer, activist and choreographer Patrick Scully. He is excited Patrick is eager and willing to have this film made about him. The film will cover Scully's recent sold out performance at the Guthrie theater, it will explore the dancer's career, Patrick's Cabaret and how Scully takes his message of queer performance and sexuality freedom to metro and to rural communities.

If you'd like to support this project, pls go to this link at the GofundMe page. We hope to greenlight the film in the next few months. If you'd like to make a tax deductable donation, Film North is our fiscal sponsor. Go to this website: http://myfilmnorth.org/fiscally-sponsored-projects/patrick-scully-the-dance-is-not-over/

The director has assembled a veteran crew to make this film.

Greg Winter is the director of Photography. Julie Kaupa, the Producer, Skip Davis is the Editor,  Conduit and Jim Morgan is providing sound, David Pope is the key Grip and Electric. 

Wojahn hopes this film will play at festivals, stream online and play on public television. Wojahn predicts the film to be 50-80 minutes in length. We are still looking for select crew and interns. Message Wojahn if you desire to be part of thisamazing project.

For more info, pls visit the film's website, https://patrickscullymovie.com.

Wojahn opens show at St.Paul Gallery

Wojahn opened a solo show of his artwork December 30th 2017 at the gallery Artista Bottega.

postcard design by Amy Patrick-WojahnOpening night was one of the coldest nights of the year but it was warm inside

for the well attended event.

Dan Hunter & Mark Wojahn talk & describe the artistic process, photo by Tinker CH.

The show features a mix of new and older work pertaining to Wojahn's fascination of manipulating the photographic image. Works range from 8 new "Concentrations" that feature layers of transparent photos cast in layers of resin to Wojahn's photo paintings of doppelgangers and silent film stars. The work will be up until January 31st 2018. The gallery is located at 937 West 7th Street, St.Paul, MN 55102. Hours are Tues, Weds, Friday 12-7pm, Thurs till 8pm, Saturday till 9pm. http://www.artbottega.com