{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"EP 240: Hunting and Making God \u2013 Motherhood, Creativity, and Building a Church of Her Own with Ranier Amiel","description":"In this episode, the third in the Santa Fe trilogy, Kimberly speaks with Ranier Amiel, an artist, bodyworker, and single mother who is restoring a century-old church in Truchas, New Mexico, and turning it into a home, studio, and eventually a space of community and sacred inquiry. Recorded inside the church itself, their conversation moves between the balance of motherhood and creativity, the grounding power of physical labor, and what it means to hunt for and make God after losing faith in the spiritual community you were raised in. Ranier shares her vulva portraiture work, including its two-year run inside an immersive theater project in Amsterdam, and the stark contrast she witnessed between American and Dutch women\u2019s relationships to their bodies. They discuss the trauma orientation as a cultural overcorrection that can become avoidant of self-expression, the obsession with self-definition versus actually embodying who you are, and the need for hierarchy, tradition, and compression alongside the essential self. The conversation closes with reflections on the layers between: body and soul, survival and art, the seen and the unseen. Bio Ranier Amiel is an artist, bodyworker, movement teacher, and painter based in Truchas, New Mexico, where she is restoring a century-old church into a home, studio, and community space. Born in Santa Fe and raised deeply inside a spiritual community, she has spent the last two decades on what she calls a path of hunting and making God\u2014seeking the sacred through the body, art, and radical vulnerability. She is known for her vulva portraiture and witnessing work, which she has practiced for over twelve years, including a two-year collaboration with an immersive theater company in Amsterdam. A single mother to her son Ollie, Ranier\u2019s life and work sit at the intersection of art, motherhood, bodywork, and the creation of sacred space. She envisions the church as a place of deeper meaning, community inquiry, and a different perspective on spiritual truth\u2014guided by a board of priestesses. What She Shares: \u2013 The wrestle of motherhood and creativity as a single parent \u2013 Restoring a century-old church in Truchas as her biggest art project \u2013 How physical labor, trenching, building, moving rock, became the most grounding thing she\u2019s ever done \u2013 Hunting and making God after spiritual disillusionment at 19 \u2013 Her vulva portraiture work and what it reveals beyond trauma \u2013 The night-and-day contrast between American and Dutch women\u2019s body relationships \u2013 A vision for the church as sacred community space led by a board of priestesses What You\u2019ll Hear: \u2013 Motherhood and creativity: the wrestle of being a full-time single mom and a wild artist \u2013 Defining for herself what a good mom looks like and what she\u2019s willing to let go of \u2013 The history of the church in Truchas and how she found it on Zillow \u2013 Desperation and audacity: taking on a property with no plumbing and no heat \u2013 How building her own home with her hands healed her nervous system \u2013 Being a white woman in a historically Hispano community and being welcomed \u2013 The church\u2019s journey from services to gallery to bedroom to future sacred space \u2013 Growing up in a spiritual community that fell apart and watching people cling harder to beliefs \u2013 What church means to her: hunting and making God, creating sacred space \u2013 Removing the patriarchy from people\u2019s bodies through bodywork, movement, and painting \u2013 The vulva witnessing work: reclamation paintings, celebration paintings, and touching the place beyond the trauma \u2013 Two years of live witnessing inside an immersive theater project in Amsterdam \u2013 American versus Dutch women: puritanical repression versus healthy embodiment \u2013 Kimberly\u2019s reflections on writing Erotic Seasons and holding both wounding and alchemical power \u2013 The trauma orientation as avoidance of self-expression and a block to maturation \u2013 Watching her teenage son self-diagnose and the cultural swing from denial to over-identification \u2013 The geranium and the jungle plant: helping people find the conditions they need to thrive \u2013 Uniqueness tangled with individualism and the obsession with self-definition \u2013 The loss of hierarchy, tradition, and roles\u2014and why compression helps us find essence \u2013 The body as the physical form of the soul, not a separate sack of flesh \u2013 The layers between as that which actually makes everything separate and not \u2013 Kimberly on occupying a between space in the culture and cultivating trustworthiness over customer satisfaction Resources Location: Truchas, New Mexico Website: https:\/\/ranieramiel.com\/ IG: @ranieramiel   ","author_name":"Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson","author_url":"http:\/\/www.kimberlyannjohnson.com\/","html":"