About

Maria Jaoudi is Professor of Religious Studies & Humanities at California State University Sacramento. She is the author of Medieval & Renaissance Spirituality and Mindfulness as Sustainability: Lessons from the World's Religions published by SUNY Press, among others.

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Dr. Jaoudi’s transcendent paintings inspired by the insights of world mystics visually form landscapes of consciousness in nature. These inner and outer worlds are taken from microscopic and telescopic imagery, and ordinary observations in nature. Included along with the paintings are actual images from biology, botany and other illustrations of ​nature: SEM images of human neuron networks and plant cells, octopuses and bird feathers, James Webb telescopic views of our cosmos. These mirror and expand our insights into consciousness, who we are and how our identity is shaped as kin belonging with all of sentient life.

Jaoudi has been painting and writing since her childhood. During childhood war-torn periods in Lebanon, painting and writing were the only possible activities available while war raged. Later, she studied art and philosophy in New York where she met her husband, Harry Smith, a philosopher and writer. The two moved to a cabin in the woods on 63 acres with only a wood stove for heat and cooking for six years in the magnificent Delaware Water Gap. It was there that Jaoudi developed her unique painting style and led workshops. The two also became locally famous for rescuing a beaver pair who later gave birth to kits, who were named in their honor, Harry and Maria.
When Maria and Harry re-entered civilization, Maria studied for her ​master​'s and ​doctora​l degrees while always continuing to paint and write. She was fortunate to begin academic teaching while studying for her ​mas​ter's degree, and has continued to teach. ​Harry and Maria's son, Harrison, has a master's degree in Philosophy and is now a medical student at Georgetown University.

Background in NYC (The Art Students League), France, Lebanon, Dakar

Exhibitions and presentations include: Oxford University, Yale University, Fordham University, Georgia State University with Helen Frankenthaler, Imogen Cunningham, and Judy Chicago; The Crocker Museum and California State University, Sacramento, California; C.G. Jung Institute, San Francisco; Hotel Clarice Gallery, Cannes, France. The Spirit & Nature Gallery in Davis, California (formerly in Cannes, France), is the permanent in-person and online gallery and studio. Beginning in 2016, member of the Harvard Divinity School, The Evolution of Spirituality conferences.