By Gwen Willems
By phone from Wisconsin, photographer and teacher Douglas Beasley declared, “I’m enjoying a beautiful weekend with a friend at my cabin and watching the river flowing by. Life is good. I’m in my happy place.”
A long-time St. Anthony Park resident, Beasley is seeing the pace of his life pick up again.
Before the pandemic, Beasley was extremely busy:
“I was travelling extensively worldwide, Iceland, Italy. I was having exhibits in Italy, teaching workshops in Japan and China and Ireland, all over the world.”
Then the pandemic hit, (in 2020) everything stopped and Beasley found he loved taking a break from traveling. He got married for the first time in 2021 and now he and his wife Julia have “a wonderful two-year-old I’m absolutely in awe of. I’m loving being a father. That’s been a wonderful journey.”
The Beasleys have a couple cabins in Wisconsin that they rent out as Airbnbs In addition, they recently bought another 44-acre piece of land north of St. Croix Falls that they are slowly developing into a retreat called Samsara Ridge.
Julia, who was a Montessori teacher, and Douglas bring children from the Twin Cities to enjoy nature. Julia believes “kids need unstructured time in the woods,” Beasley told me. “She takes them out and they build bonfires, sleep in tents, experience the outdoors more directly with unstructured time, which is fairly rare for kids these days.
“All that has kept my focus on other things besides my life as an artist, photographer and teacher,” Beasley said. Four years after the hiatus, he’s a self-described “accomplishment junky” who is refreshed and happy getting back to work pursuits, but more consciously and at a slower pace.
Beasley explained his spiritual approach allows students to explore and express their own beliefs and those of others, and also be in touch with their emotional selves rather than just making beautiful photos. “You can learn technique anywhere, but there are very few places that will let you delve into the spiritual side of photography,” he said.
Marti Corn, one of Beasley’s students, noted, “The Buddhist-inspired process Doug Beasley uses to teach photography has spilled into my daily life. With or without my camera, thanks to Doug, I see things both visually and emotionally with more intention.”
Beasley’s upcoming workshops are on-site in South Dakota, Maine and Wisconsin, as well as in three countries, including his 25th workshop in Guatemala and his 10th in China and Tibet. Here’s a rundown:
- Spirit of the Middle Kingdom, Southwest China and Tibet, Mar. 18 – 29
- Touching the Divine: A Spiritual Approach, 8-week eCourse, Mar. 23 – May 25
- Spirit of Place: Ancient Southern Italy, Padula, Italy, Apr. 23 – 30
- A Spiritual Approach to the Nude, Badlands of South Dakota, May 21–26
- Creative Renewal: Maine Media, Rockport, Maine, June 30 – July 4
- Earth, Sky, & Water: Figure in Landscape, Wolf Creek, Wisconsin, Sept. 17–21
- Guatemala: Spirit of the Maya, Antigua & Lake Atitlan, Nov. 13 – 22
Among Beasley’s published writings are three books: Japan: A Nisei’s First Encounter; Zen & the Art of Photography and Earth Meets Spirit. He is owner/publisher of SHOTS magazine, a fine arts magazine based in St. Anthony Park.
Check out Beasley’s website, douglasbeasley.com, to learn more about him and about locations, itineraries, lodgings and costs for his upcoming workshops.
Gwen Willems lives in Falcon Heights and is a Bugle freelance writer.