Testimonials

Words from students, retreat participants, and collaborators

Workshop & Retreat Testimonials

“Thank you so much for a wonderful weekend! It was such a delight to meet you and work in your studio. It was very nourishing to my soul.”

— Jenna Lokey

Santa Cruz, CA — Monoprint Workshop, July 2026

“It was a beautiful process! I felt that I was able to connect to my true, authentic self and birth a creation that I never would have imagined living inside of me!”

— Cayley

Santa Cruz, CA — Calling Back the Heart, April 2026

“I sense growth and more awareness and understanding on my part of myself. So I am very grateful and excited to move forward with my newfound awareness that could have only happened because of how you teach and the protective atmosphere you set up in your workshops.”

— Carrie

Santa Cruz, CA — Friday Transformational Painting, July 2026

“I was in Majio’s fabulous light filled studio this past weekend and it really opened me up to a new mindset and approach to my artwork. It was an intimate class, beautifully structured guiding you to delve into your own process. Majio has a wonderful way of creating a nonjudgmental supportive environment. There was so much connection and exchange of ideas among the group. I definitely found some kindred spirits. This was my second workshop with her and I look forward to more.”

— Nancy

Santa Cruz, CA — Meeting the Moment, April 2026

“In the past, I’ve been trained in the old masters’ style of art—painting Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh, DiVinci and several renaissance artists. In Majio’s week-long offering in San Miguel, I learned how to “not do art.” I learned how our perceptions shape our world. I experienced the inside and outside becoming one. Together, in a loving, accepting field of inspiring women, I learned how to let “marks” emerge into something arising in the moment. No goal. No trying. I was absorbed in the unfolding of a new way of relating to color, shapes, texture, light, and life. In this moment, I am not looking for my eyes to see. I’m more interested in watching a deeper seeing continue to surprise me. This week has truly been a transcendent experience!”

— Linda O’Neill

San Miguel de Allende — Presence with the Way Things Are Retreat, September 2023

“The day before the workshop Majio asked us “to think of a spell we might be under and want to be released from…” What unfolded for me was a visceral knowing and owning that my spell is coming from my mind’s memories, activated/triggered by words and contexts. Being in a spell is the opposite of porousness and sensing, which is grounding in my body, with the ever-flowing stream of where I am finding self-acceptance. It was as if I was feeling into continuum and the dynamic range of ‘beingness.’”

— Margie

Zoom Monoprint Workshop, December 2022

Testimonies from Various Venues & Projects

“Majio has been an extraordinary teacher for me. I am not a trained visual artist and attended her three-day painting workshop with trepidation. To my amazement, her skillful guidance took me deeply into a transpersonal space where I was able to access symbols and an imaginal realm which then translated through my body and onto the canvas. This ability to connect with the liminal world of imagination is the brilliant gift Majio offers to any community of people…those of us who are longing to find that joy and power within ourselves and to share this empowerment with the world we love. She is a magical teacher.”

— Susan Alexander

Composer, oursounduniverse.com

“Majio was a sensitive & inspiring guide through years of grief, as she helped me reshape my life around painting. She possesses an elegant and endlessly creative approach to teaching/guiding as she encouraged us to distance ourselves from the idea of ‘we as individuals’ being the sole creator of our work. This part of her process alone has changed the way I view the creative endeavor, and life itself.”

— Lucy L.

“I have worked with Majio for three years in a residential facility for underage gang affiliates doing various art projects and large-scale murals. She was continually innovative in proposing curriculum to meet this population.”

— Linda H.

“I am inspired to reach deep within myself to make marks resonating with the universal field, transcending preconceived ideas of creativity. Taking original and profound risks with the materials speaking to feelings to release new content.”

— Lorrie B.

“As my art mentor for many years, Majio continues to miraculously guide me into a deeper understanding of how the art making process and product is strengthening my connection to myself, other people around the world, and to the natural world. This deep feeling of connection to all has enhanced my vision of the true purposes of art.”

— Carolyn F.

“I have increased my ability to paint from the somatic feelings of my body, to explore what they reveal by using colors or materials freely, without rational intention but from an inner impulse that extends or expresses what I feel internally.”

— Marjorie H.

“I have become more astutely aware of the nature that surrounds me, and my relationship to it. The Marking experience has helped to expand that awareness. Natural elements flow effortlessly onto the paper and feel at home.”

— Jess W.

“Majio has helped me deepen and express this deepening in my art. Previously, I was controlled by my planning mind, and it would ruin the painting process. I wasn’t freely creative. Now however, something unintended often shows up that is relevant to the theme I was working on. And it is deeper and more meaningful. Something deeper than my surface identity is opening. What is that? It has always been here, lurking in me as the subtle energy field. Can I work innocently from this creative field? Majio, with her experience and ability to see consciously from a place that is unconscious in me, has helped free me to work from a deeper, more liberated creative place that is in me and everyone. I am the artwork in progress, and it shows up in my painting.”

— Robert B.

“As a novice art practitioner, Majio’s classes have expanded my senses beyond the visual. Through her sensorial and animistic emphasis, I now walk the shores of Monterey Bay sensing and feeling the pull of tidal forces, how the sand shapes my feet and scattered driftwood pieces “flirt” and catch my eye.”

— Carol Ann A.