Contact Kara
MotherHenna c/o KotaPress
PO Box 514, Vashon, WA 98070
206-251-6706

Kara L.C. Jones is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University where she studied Literary & Cultural Theory and Poetics. When at CMU, Kara had the opportunity to intern for three years under the mentorship of Hedda Sharapan at Family Communications, Inc., producers of Mister Rogers Neighborhood, where she studied the uses of language and its powerful effect in offering support via mass markets in written and visual media.

With her partner Hawk, Kara co-founded KotaPress (www.KotaPress.com) as an expressive arts outreach to other bereaved parents in 1999 after the death of their son Dakota. She has written many articles and offered various workshops exploring Healing Arts. This press has also released her books including Flash of Life (now in 2nd edition). Her grief support book Mrs. Duck and the Woman was translated and published in the Spanish language in 2004. KotaPress online offers the Loss Journal as well as a Kota blog and the zine A Different Kind of Parenting. Kara and Hawk are alsoHOPE mentors to bereaved parents via MISS.

Kara is also a visual artist. Though she had been drawing, bookmaking, and painting since the 1980s, she did not discover henna art until 2003. Since then, she founded Henna Healing offering henna body & visual art as well as researching the vast 9,000 year history of henna.

In working with private clients, Kara discovered the powerful effects of henna body art or other visual art as part of memorials or remembrance rituals. This discovery led her to seek more experience and knowledge about a direct healing method that could be used before, during, or after ritual sessions. She has since completed her Reiki Master-Teacher certification with Masters Jeanne Robinson and Jane Valencia.

At the beginning of 2007, Kara began the 1,000 Faces of Mother Henna (www.MotherHenna.com) project as personal and spiritual commitment to her art. She began publishing a combination of the visual art along with written content and news in the Mother Henna blog at www.motherhenna.blogspot.com. The “Seek Peace” face was one of the first creations in the 1,000 Faces project. Kara published this piece with Creative Commons copyright in the hope that others would be inspired in their own exploration of peace. From the seed of that idea, she and Hawk then launched a larger endeavor "A Peace Of..." to curate two exhibits of peace-inspired art. One exhibit is on-going, online at the blog www.APeaceOf.blogspot.com. The second exhibit is a physical show which will take place on Vashon Island in late 2008. Artists around the world are invited to visit the blog and to submit works for consideration!

Image (right) Meditate On Beauty by Kara Jones from 1,000 Faces of Mother Henna project

In the Artist's Words
This project was conceived as a vow to make 1,000 pieces of art work in the year 2007 [okay, maybe it will take me till 2008 or 2009!], each incorporating some aspect of my henna-style faces. This is my personal commitment to life and work as an artist. And it is a spiritual commitment that came after I learned about: 1) Joseph Cambell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" and 2) the Jizos for Peace project that was started at the Great Vow monastery near Portland. To date, according to the JizosForPeace.org website, they have over 400,000 Jizos!! Because Jizo affected my life after my pregnancy with and stillbirth of our son, Dakota, I decided to make a vow honoring this Bodhisattva through artwork. Just as Jizo was a light through the darkest times for our family, I hope to offer each face, each piece of artwork, as a light to those who are seeking.

If you are a bereaved parent or caregiver yourself and looking for more support for the grief journey, please see our work at KotaPress: including "The Dictionary of Loss," the zine "A Different Kind of Parenting," and host of articles for parents, teachers, siblings, caregivers, grandparents, and more, plus information about KotaPress book and workshop materials.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Email: kara@motherhenna.com

Phone: 206-251-6706
(If you get voice mail, please leave a message)

Mailing Addy:
MotherHenna.com, c/o KotaPress, PO Box 514, Vashon Island, WA 98070