Lizzy Derecktor's Bio

I first learned the art of surface fabric design at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California in 1986 while attending Mills College, on leave from Brown University. I had also taken art classes in sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design during my three years at Brown. It was during the 6 hour studio classes at C.C.A.C. that I became engrossed in the world of fabric dying, printing, screening and painting and it quickly became my chosen form of creative expression after years of loving all forms of art since childhood.

Designing clothes and “playing with fabric” had also been something I had done since a child and creating garments out of the hand decorated fabric was a natural evolution. The discovery that wearing clothing designed out of the hand dyed and printed fabric gave the wearer dramatic changes in mood and feeling led to the birth of Spiritwear as a clothing line. Creating the garments also incorporated my love of scultpure, using the body as a vehicle form of sculptural art that moved in space, with the movements of the wearer.

Both my spiritual life and musical career as a percussionist became part of the Spiritwear creation journey. Through the shamanic healing dance practice of Gabrielle Roth, which I studied for my own healing and spiritual evolution, Spiritwear was truly born as Roth’s personal line of dance wear. We worked together for ten years selling thousands of pieces of spiritwear to dancers all over the world. We focused primarily on animal imagery, painting people’s animal totems in their colors and environments. Custom pieces became the focus as well as images continually being birthed from my imagination and life on coastal Maine.

In 1989 my passion for drumming evolved into the all women African percussion ensemble, Inanna, Sister’s in Rhythm, taught primarily in the beginning by John McDowell of Mama Tongue. John has just produced a new cd entitled "Speaking the Mamma Tongue" distributed by The Moving Center - Gabrielle Roth’s recording company! (Such a small World).

Inanna has been dressed in Spiritwear as our primary costume choice since our inception, providing a wonderful canvas for me as an artist and for us as a band during our 15 years together and all our phases of evolution. We have been fortunate to have studied with some wonderful teachers over the years such as Yaya Diallo, Famoudou Konate, Karamo Sabally and Layne Redmond.

The dance connection continues through my sister, Barbara Donahue, “The Dancing Spirit” of Tiverton, Rhode Island. She has worn and promoted spiritwear for years and is now very involved with the international belly dance community.

In 2001, my spiritual search led me to study with Althea Chadwick of The Whole Point Institute. Since that time I have painted many images illustrating Althea's model - "The Wisdom Way". I have created many garments for both Althea as teacher and for many of her students. These pieces are custom creations addressing the needs and desires of the client. This work is deeply satisfying for myself and the clients I am blessed to be creating for.

Most recently, I have begun a series of images that are paintings not to be worn, but to illustrate this (W)hole work as it is experienced by me on my own spiritual path. I hope to share these images on my site when the time is right.