Breathlines teacher Laurie Edwards has pursued the practice since
the late 'nineties. In 2002 he established the Stupid School of
Contemplative Art and Narrative in Toronto at the Geist Gallery on
Toronto's Gerrard Street East. Here, with the support of Geist
Magazine, he shared his painting practice with hundreds of visitors,
developed a program of public narrations and exhibited the work of
diverse artists. After the Tsunami, he conducted an international
fund raising program on behalf of the Butterfly Peace Garden of Sri
Lanka.
At the invitation of the St Paul's University peace and conflict
graduate study program breathlines went to Ottawa. Among the
participants in a painting intensive was an artist by the name of
Carolynn Sheu, who would subsequently establish a dedicated studio
at Woodroffe High School. Laurie returned to Ottawa to lead an
intensive for staff and students at Woodroffe, and it was after this
intensive that Carolynn established her studio.
In 2004, Fish Slipping Through Net, a breathlines studio, opened at
Holy Name Elementary School near Danforth Avenue in Toronto. Here
Laurie was able to work with children as well as adults, sharing not
only his painting practice, but with the assistance of martial
artist Mai Cao, meditations on movement. During his time with the
students and staff of Holy Name, Laurie experimented with
breathlines as a motivational aid to learning.
In early 2008, breathlines moved to the yellow door learning centre,
an outreach program of 6 St Joseph House in Toronto. The house is a
project of the Seeds Of Hope Foundation, and provides facilities to
creative persons experiencing challenges in their lives.
Laurie learned his painting practice from Paul Hogan when Paul was
visiting him on Gabriola. For several months every year since then
Laurie has been sharing the practice at his studio on the island. He
has also shared the practice with Rastafarian villagers in Jamaica,
with counsellors from The Learning Force at a retreat in Ontario's
Muskoka region, with youth groups such as the For Youth Initiative
in Toronto, with Vancouver-based health care professionals, and with
Ottawa-based practitioners who first encountered breathlines at St
Paul's University or Woodroffe High School. In the summer of 2008, he
brought breathlines to teachers at Reclaiming Our Youth Homefront
School at Beauval on the English River First Nations (Dene) reserve
in northern Saskatchewan. The practice has become a core element of
the school's curriculum. Moreover, one night a week the school's
co-founders, Marius and Candyce Paul, invite adult members of the
local community to join them painting breathlines.
Laurie's own paintings are widely dispersed among friends of his
various studios and among supporters of the Peace Garden.
He has produced more than two hundred of his own paintings, and many
of these are celebrated in his "meditations".