BIO's
About Author Barbara Dowdy-Trabke
As a youngster growing up on a farm in
Southeast Missouri, Barbara’s view of life suddenly expanded when
she moved to
Fairbanks,
Alaska as a young bride. She
arrived just in time to experience the history-making saga of the
Alaskan pipeline and while her husband was away working on the
project for months at a time, the young bride soon became familiar
with the hardiness needed to endure the long, cold, snowy winters.
Harsh weather and living conditions influenced Barbara’s character,
self-sufficient life style and indomitable spirit.
Raising four children, she managed to work and also continue her
education. While the children were growing Barbara eventually
recognized that the health care they were receiving was not helping
them to stay healthy and prevent diseases, merely providing a
pharmaceutical solution after someone was sick. She began studying
herbal medicine and was soon holding weekly meetings so that others
could benefit from the things she was learning. Seeking to learn
more, she pursued her studies, becoming a Certified Master
Herbalist, Iridologist, Reflexologist, MRM Technician and Reiki
Master. For more than a dozen years Barbara has been hosting a
healing circle both in Fairbanks,
Alaska, and in
Reno,
Nevada.
These circles are a time of spiritual learning, sharing and
development for all who participate in them. And, she continues to
share what she has learned both with her community and by traveling
around the United States holding seminars and
teaching others.
Barbara began dowsing when in her 20’s and, over time, dowsing has
not only become a way of life for her personally, but also an
opportunity for great learning and sharing of the gifts she has
received. Over the years in Fairbanks,
Alaska,
Barbara came to realize that a person was not just a body with a
soul, but was more accurately, a soul with a body. Therefore body,
mind and soul were all of importance. She started building on the
knowledge that was sparked back in the mid-70’s when she held that
first forked tree twig and learned that she could dowse for water.
Barbara attended Ozark Research Institute and became a member of the
Fairbanks Dowsing Society and later a member of the American Society
of Dowsers. Barbara has not only dowsed many water wells but she has
taught individuals and classes in the techniques of dowsing and on
pendulum usage.
After the death of her youngest daughter, Heather, who was killed by
a drunk driver, Barbara’s life changed in a myriad of ways. The
connection with the spiritual strengthened. Now remarried and at
home in Reno,
Nevada,
Barbara continues to offer alternative health and healing
information for those who seek her services. She has expanded her
skill, learning to read Tarot Cards and use Angel Cards along with
using the pendulum (dowsing), to ascertain information that would
not otherwise be available. For more than 10 years Barbara published
a quarterly herbal newsletter and now, with her first book, she has
found a new way of helping others who are in need of this knowledge.
Barbara enjoys helping others journey along their own spiritual
paths, and teaches classes on many aspects of mind/body/spirit
healing, as well as giving individual readings. Artistic, creative,
and an avid quilter, Barbara enjoys teaching quilting classes and
making art quilts for sale—often using her own hand-dyed fabric.
Recently, the international quilt scene has been enriched by several
of Barbara’s quilts showing both in
Nashville,
TN as well as Paducah,
KY.
About Illustrator
Rachelle Dowdy
Rachelle
Dowdy
rachelledowdy@hotmail.com
P.O. Box 404
Ester, Alaska 99725
The illustrations in this book were created by
Artist Rachelle Dowdy. She was born in
Fairbanks,
Alaska
in 1971; and in 1996 she received a B.F.A. in sculpture, with a minor
in painting, from the University
of Alaska,
Fairbanks. She is one of the co-founders of
SoNot, a coalition of six visual artists who meet weekly to talk
about art issues and critique one another’s work. The Artists also
organized One Night Art Stands exhibitions, set in alternative
venues that happens one night only. Their final project is to curate
Double XX, the first comprehensive look at contemporary women
artists in Alaska. Dowdy’s artwork consists primarily of
human and animal images, combining natural materials such as wood
and fibers with industrial and recycled materials. Dowdy was the
recipient of a Rasmusson Fellowship in 2006, and a Marie Walsh Sharpe
Art Foundation Scholar in 1989. She has worked as an
artist-in-residence at Denali
National Park,
University
of Alaska Fairbanks,
Fairbanks
School District
and for the Fairbanks Arts Association. She has also taught
sculpture classes at the University
of Alaska,
Fairbanks. She has had solo exhibitions,
including at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art,
Decker/Morris Gallery, Alaska Pacific University, and The Center of
Contemporary Art in Anchorage; the
Bunnell Street Gallery in Homer, Well Street Gallery, Fairbanks Arts
Association, and the University
of Alaska Fairbanks in Fairbanks. She has also participated in
numerous group exhibitions, including the Anchorage Museum of
History and Art, the
University of
Alaska Fairbanks,
Fairbanks Arts Assoc., Well St. Art Co., International Gallery of
Contemporary Art, Decker/Morris Gallery, Out North Gallery, Bunnell
St. Gallery, The Annex, and the Center for Contemporary Art. Dowdy’s
work is held in many public and private collections including the 1%
for Art Program, Alaska Psychiatric Institute, Anchorage Museum of
History and Art, City of Anchorage, Julie Decker and Michael Morris,
Wanda Semester and Mark Fryer, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Jocelyn Young
and Asia Freeman. Dowdy completed a private commission from the WILD
Foundation, four life sized ferro-concrete sculptures titled
Wilderness, Wildlands and People; A Partnership for the Public,
which was installed in downtown
Anchorage
and gifted to the City of Anchorage
and the people of
Alaska.
Dowdy currently lives and works in
Fairbanks.
