Berit Jarama Estabrook, was born in Mexico of Peruvian and Norwegian parents, and grew up in Sweden. As an adult she lived six years in Austria followed by twelve years in Virginia, USA . Wild nature has made her feel at home where ever she lived, and the domestic animals in her life have always been like immediate family.
As a child, art was always present, since her father was a painter. When she saw Frida Kahlo’s work in 1982 at the Kulturhuset in Stockholm, it ignited her dream to become a painter. Simultaneously she was always passionate about the spiritual reality of things and has ever since been an explorer of spirit, heart and mind. With an Animist view of life Shamanism and Pagan teachings guide and inspire her life as well as her art. Her love for animals and nature has over the years developed into activism, and lately, art, spirituality and activism have merged into Art Activism.
Some painters that inspire her work are Rick Bartow, Per Kirkeby, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Elmer Bischoff, Elisabeth Cummings, Peter Doig, Jules Buck Jones and Rebecca Haines. Explorer Jaques Cousteau, film maker David Attenborough, and the writers Joanna Macy, John Seed, and Eleanor O’Hanlon are great minds within animal conservation and animal advocacy that also inspire and motivate her work.
She presently lives in Sweden where she paints, leads art workshops and facilitate women’s circles.
Berit Jarama Estabrook 