Dhyana Artist

BIOGRAPHY

Anu-Dhyana Sol-Lit Edser
Visual Arts: Painting + Video + VJ Live Mixing

I am Anu-Dhyana, a multi-disciplinary artist with over 30 years of experience in painting and more than 15 years working in video and VJing. Based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, I create immersive works that express unseen energies flowing through body, land, and cosmos—merging painting, video, and spiritual abstraction into a living language of vibration and form.

As a Pākehā cisgender woman living in Aotearoa, I acknowledge the privileges I hold. I honour the mana (spiritual authority, prestige, and integrity) of tangata whenua (people of the land, Indigenous Māori) and their role as kaitiaki (guardians, protectors, stewards) of this land. While I do not claim indigeneity in a cultural or tribal sense, I strive to live and create in a way that is grounded in the whenua (land, the source of life) and guided by wairua (spirit, the unseen essence that flows through all things), in deep connection to source.

My work arises from a personal journey of reconnection—returning to embodied presence, restoring my relationship with land and energy, and drawing inspiration through breath and rewilding, uniting with nature. I listen deeply to the spirit of Aotearoa while honouring and weaving in my own ancestral lineage. I acknowledge that as a Pākehā I cannot become Māori or claim tribal indigeneity—but I can walk the path of becoming re-indigenised to Earth, to place, to body, and to source. This is a journey of deep listening, respect, and transformation—as a way to create right relationship.

My creative path began with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Ilam (1990), evolving into an MFA in Video at Massey University (2007). Early influences of gestural abstraction—shaped by Willem de Kooning—opened into large-scale intuitive painting, moving image, public art, and VJing. A pivotal moment came in the 1990s, during life in a yoga ashram, when a third-eye activation brought visions of Tibetan Thangka mandalas. These visions seeded my lifelong use of high-key colour, sacred geometry, and chakra-based compositions to map energy fields.

In 2001, I was given the spiritual name Anu-Dhyana—“chasing after God.” In 2023, I claimed it formally, no longer chasing but walking the path. This reflects a deeper realisation that I am not separate from source; I am source.

My current series, Painting for Life, is an act of painting myself home—into the body, into presence. I connect with Papatūānuku/Gaia as a living, conscious being. Central to my creative process are embodiment practices as they enhance the intuitive flow state. Viewers often respond on a felt intuitive level and are pulled into a contemplative state—activated not just by image, but by the vibration embedded within.

These rituals ground me into Earth so I can reach higher into the cosmos, connecting source above and below, including swimming daily in the sea, grounding barefoot on the earth, practicing breathwork, and sun-gazing and star-gazing. 

My influences are cross-cultural: Celtic and pre-Christian earth traditions, matriarchal sun-worshipping cosmologies, and elemental forces. My life’s quest is to unlearn the disconnection of a materialist upbringing, to rewild, and to reconnect with nature as source. My art is an offering to that journey, and an invitation for others to step into their own embodied connection.

My MFA video work, addressing environmental activism and the Wellington inner-city bypass, was presented to the Green Party in 2001. It set the tone for my later VJ practice—art as both aesthetic experience and environmental activism. Since 2011, I became a VJ using my fine arts aesthetic, creating “moving paintings” in real time—at festivals, and dance events.

Mentorship with Darcy Nicholas

It is a privilege to be mentored by Darcy Nicholas. His insights have encouraged me to integrate my deep engagement with Indigenous art traditions—Māori, Native American, and others—through a universal visual language that is distinctly mine. His critiques sharpen my vision, and our shared love of colour and influence from artists such as Matisse and Picasso continues to energise my work.

Career Highlights & Cross-Cultural Influences

• 1995–1999 – Wanganui Sargent Art Gallery & Polytechnic:
  Sargent Gallery exhibitions were cross-cultural, in which I made cultural linkages, especially when local Māori could see connections between Tibetan Buddhist, and Aboriginal art and cultural practices. I initiated cultural exchanges between the Māori Art School and the Sargent Gallery; I immersed myself into learning about the Māori culture.
  

• Following the Moutoa Gardens protest, I worked closely with local iwi, ensuring correct cultural protocols. At the Māori Art School, I instigated cultural exchanges, giving them access to the Sargent Gallery collections; in return, I learnt about the Māori culture. I also participated in 30-plus sweat lodge rituals, often as fire keeper.
  

1993–2003 – International Travel & Research:

• New York & San Francisco: Multiple monthly visits to NY research trips exploring galleries, museums, museum collections, and libraries, and postgraduate programmes.

• USA & Canada: Engaged with Native American art, shamanism, and contemporary art in New York, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Hopi lands, Seattle, and Vancouver Island.

• Vancouver Island: Four months at a Medicine Lodge: Learning shamanic drumming to support shamanic ceremonial dancing; explored respectful cross-cultural engagement.
  A Vision quest led to creating drawings for a Potlach Ceremony.

• Santa Fe: At the Institute of American Indian Arts, I explored the ethics of cross-cultural artmaking. I concluded that I must work in a universal visual language without appropriation. This was the biggest week of my life of multiple major synchronicities happening daily.

• I was taken to sacred sites by a person with authority, without this I could have been shot, and I went Hopi Villages for ceremonial dances.
  

• 2002–2005:  MFA at Massey University: Environmental Activism: presented video at the Annual Green Party conference.

• 2011: Whanganui River Artist Trip: Travelled by waka and bike with Māori hosts; created video art honouring the river’s cultural life.

2011: Artist in Residence

What I Offer

• Studio Visits – Explore my gallery space, view current paintings, and discuss potential commissions, including street art, interior painting, and community art projects

• Commissions – Open to custom projects; studio visits available to discuss specific needs
• Open Studios – Announcements of upcoming open studios will be advertised
• Workshops – One on One Tuition Studios

Dhyana offers ways for artists of all levels, from beginner through to experienced to keep developing your work in their desired direction. Dhyana talks 1 on 1 or with the group to work out strategies that will help them progress, and to move into new areas. Work on your artwork in class, applying and integrating previous learning from the intro course and receive feedback while it is in progress.

Links
https://newzealandandmaoriart.com/anu-dhyana/
I am represented on this website with Darcy Nicholas as my Art Agent.

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dhyana.Artist/
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/dhyana__artist/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anudhyana