June Maselli

Hyper-jumping through the narrow lens of an insular world, towards opportunities for creative engagement, led to Moore College of Art and Design. Moore was founded in the late 19th century to help women have a career and financial independence. The textile design program, for expressive free form, and the college's pedagogical philosophy, called sequential learning, or building on what you've learned, strongly informed my future. Artists Eva Hess and Alice Neel were also influential.

After junior year, a group of international students lived in Ollantaytambo in the Peruvian Andes. We studied many related topics and went on a weaving trek, climbing as high as 17,000 feet. The trek focused on learning about indigenous weaving methods of the Quechua people, descendants of the Inca civilization. In Peru I began exchanging an insular world for a world of inquiry and how emotions play into it. 

Back in the U.S. I focused on community art in public spaces. Then on a trip to Saint John's Island, a nature preserve in the American Caribbean, I discovered a holistic studies center. For about half of each year, over a number of years, I worked and lived on the U.S. campus. I worked with Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ram Dass and many more. I also worked as a supervisor in a transitional work program, supporting those moving from an institutionalized setting to a workplace setting. It was called The Association of Artisans Able to Cane, now called East Streets Arts in New Haven, CT. I also began contributing to Art Life Original Art Magazine, Communication for the Creative Mind, an International monthly periodical, contributing art to 30 issues over a five year period. It is archived in such places as: the Museum of Modern Art; the Guggenheim Museum; Art Vivant, Tokyo, Japan; and Jeu de Paume Paris, France.

Returning to university, I won the Marshall Kuhn award in Painting. From this body of work I had a show at the Connecticut Mental Health Center. Multiple paintings were purchased for permanent display by the director of the Department of Neuro Molecular Psychiatry at Yale University. Later degrees include an individualized MA, thesis titled "Undoing the K(not): Self, Experience, Expression." This also includes an MA in Psychology and Counseling. As part of the latter, I worked as a Yale University Fellow in the Central Treatment Unit of the APT Foundation's Substance Dependence Unit. My thesis for this degree is titled "The Treatment of Substance Dependence in Women with a History of Trauma."

Before starting at Supported Living Group (SLG), I worked in the Department of Molecular Biology, Yale University. Later in my tenure, I began using an electron microscope to generate images. The primary investigator eventually retired and I realized that I wanted to work with people. This led me to the Inspire Arts Program at SLG. It is an honor and a privilege to work within a community supporting people with Brain Injury.