Myrna Shoa mixed media artist filmmaker storyteller
Can we ever convey a time that is other than the one we live in? We barely register the changes from year to year, as like a wave rippling on to a shore the currents change imperceptibly. Our yardstick of what we think of as good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable change. Trying to express it, however, allows us to see where we are today and where we have come from, without judgment but simply to pay attention to how our thinking and worldview has changed without us noticing it.
The power of images and stories places us in a historical context and helps us make sense of the world, in finding out who we are, what has shaped us, and who we can become. With all my creative projects I am interested in the stories we tell ourselves and how sharing stories with others can bring fresh insights.
World Turned Upside Down is an animation I made in January 2018. The World did turn upside down in 2020 with the global pandemic.
All my energy now is in telling stories through film, photos words and artwork.
Watch my films on my westlondonfilms YouTube channel
stories that need to be told
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Yvonne Reed is a creative, talented woman, storyteller, writer and Bridal Dress Designer. She was in and out of hospital with an unknown illness at that time from the age of one to thirteen years old. At thirteen she was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease. Yvonne has triumphed magnificently finding ways to succeed and thrive in her life. A story about ignorance and survival.
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Graphic designer Donald Dede lived through the Biafra War, the Nigerian civil war (1967 - 1970). This is his story. Donald speaks of torture, sabotage, courage, luck and survival. Donald as an ammunition technician never went to the war front.The problems that led to the civil war have not been tackled.
Remembering is important if we are to learn from what happened. |
Artist Caroline Poole tells the story about the suitcase her Hungarian Jewish Grandparents brought to England in 1946. The suitcase contains stories about her childhood, her family members murdered in Auschwitz and stories about survival. The family were living in the shadow of an existential threat in Hungary at that time: Hitler was looming over their shoulders. Life is fragile, what seems stable and secure can turn upside down overnight.
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"I am more than ever in a story gathering time," Myrna Shoa
Ishtar insulted by Gilgamesh wants him killed by the bull of heaven. A 4000 year old story can offer insights into our lives now. You can buy stunning prints of this art work by Myrna Shoa.
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9 people from diverse communities share their responses to lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic 2020.. Produced and directed by: Timuchin Dindjer and Myrna Shoa (C)
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"The Man in The Red Suit - Life is like a jigsaw puzzle is an experimental video animation created during Lockdown, 2020 (C)
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Creativity can rise from the ashes of difficult, chaotic times
Hazel Riley's Gift
Hear the howl of the wolves, a life and death cry Let their wildness fuel your spirit, without fear. That is how we can all lead our lives.
The same day my friend Hazel Riley passed 2 other friends, partners for 50 years found out they both had life threatening illnesses at the same time.
I started these drawings the next day. I am a storyteller. The swirling blood red is the life force. Life pushes through the cracks as tiny plants grow in the spaces.
Hear the howl of the wolves, a life and death cry Let their wildness fuel your spirit, without fear. That is how we can all lead our lives.
The same day my friend Hazel Riley passed 2 other friends, partners for 50 years found out they both had life threatening illnesses at the same time.
I started these drawings the next day. I am a storyteller. The swirling blood red is the life force. Life pushes through the cracks as tiny plants grow in the spaces.
Two days before Hazel passed she gave me a gift. This is a gift for all of us.
We were speaking about the Red Riding Hood story, which I couldn’t connect to. It had no meaning for me. We spoke about the wolf, in the story and what it means. In every version I’ve read the wolf is seen as bad, evil, male.Hazel surprised me, “I love the wolf in the story. I love wolves their wildness, their spirit Most people see the wolf as bad, the bad part of the story. I love the wolf”.
“You are like the wolf Hazel,” I replied. “ You have lived your life with wildness despite living with a major health condition since a young woman”. “I know that Myrna!”, she retorted. “Oops! sorry Hazel I needed reminding of it!”.
Hazel Riley November 26, 1953 - 19 September 2025, author, shamanic practitioner and teacher.
We were speaking about the Red Riding Hood story, which I couldn’t connect to. It had no meaning for me. We spoke about the wolf, in the story and what it means. In every version I’ve read the wolf is seen as bad, evil, male.Hazel surprised me, “I love the wolf in the story. I love wolves their wildness, their spirit Most people see the wolf as bad, the bad part of the story. I love the wolf”.
“You are like the wolf Hazel,” I replied. “ You have lived your life with wildness despite living with a major health condition since a young woman”. “I know that Myrna!”, she retorted. “Oops! sorry Hazel I needed reminding of it!”.
Hazel Riley November 26, 1953 - 19 September 2025, author, shamanic practitioner and teacher.
A World In A Suitcase
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A World in a Suitcase is an innovative mixed media visual storytelling project, conceived and developed by Myrna Shoa and Timuchin Dindjer that inspires people from diverse communities to take a fresh look at their 'Worlds' through sharing stories, art, photography, paper collage & film.A World in a Suitcase project is a resource for people to take a look at their lives, share their stories with others. For now the Suitcase is closed. The project as it was has come to an organic end, yet the material, knowledge gained can be used and adapted for future activities.
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Strange Ways Stories tales that are true yet unbelievable.
I have written and illustrated true family stories, Strange Ways Stories published by Gatehouse Books.
The Sofa, The Marriage, The Box of Chocolates and Rosie & the Iron Bar. I co - wrote with author Hazel Riley and also illustrated the beginner readers 'From The Heart' series, retelling the Greek myths in a modern urban setting.
The Sofa, The Marriage, The Box of Chocolates and Rosie & the Iron Bar. I co - wrote with author Hazel Riley and also illustrated the beginner readers 'From The Heart' series, retelling the Greek myths in a modern urban setting.
Can we ever convey a time that is other than the one we live in? We barely register the changes from year to year, as like a wave rippling on to a shore the currents change imperceptibly. Our yardstick of what we think of as good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable change. Trying to express it, however, allows us to see where we are today and where we have come from, without judgment but simply to pay attention to how our thinking and worldview has changed without us noticing it.
A Childhood Remembered
"In the last year of my sister Sandra's life we passionately gathered together our stories from our childhood for this website - Sandra and Myrna
We disagreed sometimes about what happened realising that we saw the world through our own eyes. This enlivened the recollections, made them richer. Without this wonderful story gathering I would not have been able to write, illustrate and have published Strange Ways stories about our shared upbringing.These stories are mainly for our families to read, to answer questions about their backgrounds, history and connection to the other cultures they have come from. Out of the blue, at the end of 2021 I had 2 emails from people from my past that had 'found' me after approximately 65 years, a relative and a school mate of Sandra and me, "The Past, Present and Future are entwined in these bizarre events. People who have known me when a child at primary school have in 2021 found me, through my website, got in contact with me and filled in gaps in my stories, and memories," Myrna Shoa
We disagreed sometimes about what happened realising that we saw the world through our own eyes. This enlivened the recollections, made them richer. Without this wonderful story gathering I would not have been able to write, illustrate and have published Strange Ways stories about our shared upbringing.These stories are mainly for our families to read, to answer questions about their backgrounds, history and connection to the other cultures they have come from. Out of the blue, at the end of 2021 I had 2 emails from people from my past that had 'found' me after approximately 65 years, a relative and a school mate of Sandra and me, "The Past, Present and Future are entwined in these bizarre events. People who have known me when a child at primary school have in 2021 found me, through my website, got in contact with me and filled in gaps in my stories, and memories," Myrna Shoa
PAST PRESENT & FUTURE - Through these new encounters I am able to reach back onto the past and add information, my truths to those times which in turn will affect the future for all of us who knew those stories from so long ago.
History is fluid, the way we look at events is dependent on what information is gathered from different points of view, the context of the times. Memories of past events and stories will inevitably become fixed if no new input has been added to those recollections.
History is fluid, the way we look at events is dependent on what information is gathered from different points of view, the context of the times. Memories of past events and stories will inevitably become fixed if no new input has been added to those recollections.
Sandra and Myrna
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With Sandra's passing I am the last of the Horowitchs. No one else is alive. As children the only relatives we had were our parents, Uncle Morris and Aunty Rosie. The relatives on our mother Ina's side, the Hendrys we thought were all dead as there had been no contact with them since we were children until 2021. Sandra and I met Aunty Betty in London, our mother's sister several times in London and Uncle James our mother's brother and family a few times, in Scotland.
Sandra lives on in these stories, These stories may resonate with yours," Myrna Shoa 2020 "Since Sandra's death I have been trying to find out any more information about our backgrounds. In May 2021, I discovered the actual newspaper articles about our grandfather Myer, Rosie and Morris, recently digitised, uploaded and available free from the British Newspaper Archive. Sandra would have been amazed and delighted to see all this. I hope she is looking down and smiling. SEE STRANGE WAYS STORIES our version of these stories told to us over our upbringing."
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The Fool
The Fool women's fashion 1970s
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Myrna Shoa created The Fool website as an historical record and resource showing how she, Ruti and other creative women gave birth to a successful enterprise. The Fool a designer women’s hippie fashion company started in 1973 with a little bit of magic. The Fool caught the zeitgeist, the spirit of the time.
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Myrna Shoa and Ruti -Then & Now
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The Fool designed manufactured and sold colourful, flowing, lacy hippie style women’s clothes around The Portobello Road area at a time of great change. From Aden, Manchester, Eritrea, Cheetham Hill, Scotland, Clydebank, Dvinsk, Russia, Ruti, Myrna and Aury set up The Fool.
This hotchpotch combination made the magic happen brought the spark alive and created a successful entrepreneurial business. |
Storytelling through film - about marriage, men, war, survival
Attitudes towards women have changed over the decades, centuries formed by the context of the societies at a given time about how women are seen. It would have been a male focused viewpoint about the world and women. It still is a mans world in most parts of the world.
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Marriage is a short documentary that gives a voice to women who have not been heard before.
Four older women from diverse backgrounds in conversation with Myrna Shoa about Marriage, Expectations, Women's Rights, Race, Religion,
Men, Contraception and Love.
Four older women from diverse backgrounds in conversation with Myrna Shoa about Marriage, Expectations, Women's Rights, Race, Religion,
Men, Contraception and Love.
Storytelling allows us to see the world in fresh and unexpected ways
"Stories, both those we tell ourselves and those we encounter, profoundly shape our identities, beliefs, and behaviours. They provide frameworks for understanding the world, inspire action, and connect us to others. Recently, Donald Dede and I have been telling each other stories from ancient tales.(The King's Son a Sufi story). The telling of stories transported us to a place where we could think and feel in a fresh way. I created the illustrations for the exhibition's catalogue for glass artist John Patsalides, Glass Odyssey, based on the King's Son story. " Myrna Shoa
Innovation comes about through necessity
"There was once immeasurably beautiful land where all people lived in a kind of paradise. The king had a son who as custom fortold had to go on a journey and bring back a jewel guarded by a fearsome monster. Thus the king's son would be prepared for his future kingship". The King's Son.
"The Covid Pandemic now seems like a distant memory. Over Lockdown 2020- 2021 I conceived and created 2 video animations. The Man in The Red Suit and You Can't Come In. I also made Our World in Lockdown with Timuchin Dindjer. I recorded Inma Meruelo reading her delightful book she wrote and illustrated for children, Once Upon a Time in Covid -19 Time". Myrna Shoa
(C)
