Following the Heart Path
A Conversation with Dominique Mazeaud
By Linda Mason Hunter
© Linda Mason Hunter, 2004; May not be reprinted without written permission from the author.

“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”
--E.M. Forster, novelist

Dominique Mazead
Photo: Lark Smothermon

Born and reared in France, Dominique Mazeaud relishes the word play of English, her second language. She finds convergence, irony, and insight in the juxtaposition of letters. For example, in her fondness for animals she notes that the Latin root word “anima” means soul, breath, air. She says no coincidence that the words heart and earth each contain the words ear and art.

“In our busy, modern lives we are rushing about without thinking too much of the consequences of our actions. We hear but do we really listen? Listening requires participating with my entire being. It requires me to let go of attachment to my own ideas and expectations. It’s very much about the heart listening.

“What has intrigued me is that the Chinese character for heart contains within it the characters for mind and ear. Mind, along with listening, brings us to the art of things. As a way of informing us that it hears our care and concerns, the earth whispers its winds of inspiration into the ears of our hearts. That’s how wisdom and compassion are born. Listening is in fact a loop of listening: I listen to you with my h-ear-t. Art.”

Photo: Lark Smothermon

She calls herself a “heartist,” combining the word “art” with “heart” to express the ineffable work she does.

“The heart is my medium, a journey where I deepen my own heart, my own expression, whatever I’m doing.”

Her quest is to find the spiritual in art in our time, a mission she received in a vision as clear as any tangible reality. Drawn by seeing so much separation and suffering in the world, she abandoned a job as a New York City gallery director and gave up the security of marriage in order to be free to give her life to spirit and service. Tracing her inspiration to the tradition of sacred art, she performs rituals, ceremonies, creates installations, and does community work. Such ritual speaks to another dimension beyond us.

“I think we all know it. Ritual allows you to express yourself from the inside out—to know, to believe, and to be.”

She received much publicity in the late 1980s for her Great Cleansing of the Rio Grande, an environmental cleanup that took place near Santa Fe, New Mexico on the same day each month for seven years. During that time she kept a diary which became a kind of prayer.

            “Nov. 19, 1987:
            Picking up a can
            From the river
            And then another
           On and on
           It’s like a devotee
           Doing countless rosaries.”

Sundays in the early 2000s found her on Santa Fe’s central plaza dressed in black, wearing a white mask with one lone tear, carrying a cloth replica of the earth she calls “The Most Precious Jewel.”

“You can look at my rituals as a piece of sculpture, but you will not see anything after I leave.”

Beautifully radiant at 60 years old, Dominique begins her day with yoga and meditation, firmly believing that how you begin your day is important to its progress. She has an aura of gentility about her, her manner serene, her face free of worry. She is a joyful pilgrim filled with loving kindness, walking gently, lightly, with full attention, contemplating things others fail to notice. She sees the life in every leaf, listens with an inner ear honoring sounds, colors, silence.

“I live simply. I give.  I am truthful with myself. More and more I am learning to value my work, though sometimes I wish I were rich so I could give it away!”

Dominique lives with attention and intention, qualities

Photo: Lark Smothermon

she attributes to making her life run smoother, lighter. She constantly attends to the integrity of her inner voice, believing it is a knowing, an intuition, another sense. She relishes synchronicity when she finds it, hailing such coincidences as signs confirming her self-created path.

As she ages she follows the wisdom of her compassionate heart.

“The beauty of getting older is to let yourself understand the pains of the heart and move on to experience the pain of other people.”

What Dominique finds missing in American culture today is ritual. Ritual brings meaning to life helping us experience life more fully. Throughout the day she says prayers, always consciously mindful of present miracles. Gestures as plebian as composting food scraps and saving water for the garden she imbues with purpose and meaning.

“We should thank everything we touch, offering our gratitude and compassion, knowing it’s all connected.”

Dominique believes the salvation of the planet depends on awakening the artist in each one of us.

“If each being were more creative in their habits, rituals, ways of living, relationships with others, we would be able to change the course of the world.”

Favorite Quote

“Give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.”

                --Kalil Gibran, The Prophet

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