Gifts


Films

A Story of Resilience, Community, and Hope

Our latest documentary film invites you to experience the heart and history of Pontiac, Michigan. This powerful story of resilience follows the city’s journey from its rise as an automotive hub to the challenges of economic decline and the creativity still blooming in its neighborhoods. Featuring real voices, historic archives, and striking on-location cinematography, the film is both a love letter and a call to action—honoring a community that refuses to be defined by hardship alone.

While the full film is currently submitted to several film festivals and available only for private screenings, you can watch the official trailer here for a first glimpse into the spirit of Pontiac–Roses Through the Thorns (2015).

Wisdom for the Future, Spoken from Tradition

Voices of the Grandmothers (2021) is a documentary film that carries the timeless wisdom of indigenous elders into the present moment. Imagine growing up with the dream seeds of a wise grandmother—stories, myths, and songs that guide you to find your way in the world, share your gifts, and reconnect with your true nature. This film asks: “The Grandmothers are speaking—are we listening?” The film is both a prayer and a call to action: to remember, to listen, and to walk with wisdom.

Featuring Grandmother Flordemayo, Grandmother Pershile (Perci), Grandmother SaSa, Grandmother Moetu-Taiha, and Reverend Grandmother Eila Paul—alongside Master Mingtong Gu, Angelique Boas, Madi Sato, Joanne Shenandoah, Leah Shenandoah, and others—the film honors voices of strength, spirit, and renewal. This project is a heartfelt collaboration dedicated to carrying forward the teachings of resilience, reverence, and unity for generations to come.


Fine Art


Books

Wild Wyoming Legends Live in the Wyld Fiction Novel Series

Similar to other artworks by Arise, our printed books, ebooks, and audiobooks inspire connection and expression. Our outstanding print publications span genres but share a common purpose: to inspire discovery through artful storytelling. Our nonfiction title Big Idea Patterns offers fresh frameworks for creative thinking and innovation. The four-part art book series Always Never Sometimes (Roots, Breakthroughs, Blooms, and Fruits) explores the roles we play in life through evocative imagery and poetry.

For children, we created uplifting tales like Be Well BeeBrave SpiritI Walk In Beauty, and Wild Wyoming—books designed to nurture imagination, courage, and a sense of wonder. Our Wyld youth fiction novel series invites young readers on an adventurous journey through nature, self-discovery, and belonging. Together, these works reflect our belief that art in all its forms—literature, music, film, and beyond—can move hearts, spark imagination, and contribute to a more beautiful world.


Music

Medicine Song & Watercolor Animated Music Video

Brave Spirit is the #1 single from Cosmic Butterflies’ album Colors Flying, a medicine song about courage that blends myth, melody, and movement into a timeless tale. The song evokes indigenous influences and cowboy poetry alike. Its music video—crafted entirely from hand-painted watercolor animation—brings this mythic world to life, where two souls from different tribes meet by destiny and discover love, bravery, and connection with the sacred. With flute, guitar, and drum guiding the way, Brave Spirit invites listeners to embody courage, honor the mystery, and dance with the spirit that rises with the moonlight.


Podcasts


New Media

Trending Techniques and Creative Leaps in AI Animation

The 2025 music video for “Path of Love” by Cosmic Butterflies features a polar bear cub in an epic search for his mama bear, at a fragile time of global warming. This represents the current trailblazing AI animation capabilities of Adobe Firefly in a short film created for the AI Animation Competition by Promise + Curious Refuge. Another  example of Firefly's AI generative art is “Close To You,” from the album Lover Songs (2024). 

These three pioneering AI animated videos come from the early era before AI generative art met the masses. Deforum Stable Diffusion and Google Colab were the specific technologies we used generate these stunning animations. Before generative AI art hit the mainstream, these underground tools allowed boundary-pushing artists and innovators to create stunning, dreamlike visuals—especially for music videos. This era was a kind of digital renaissance, where open-source innovation met poetic imagination.


Comedy

World of Woo—Comedy Tarot Reading

Step inside World of Woo, where tarot cards, crystals, and psychic visions collide with comedy. In this episode, Jim visits Miss Lala for a tarot reading to seek guidance on romance, and destiny. But between vegan dragon smoke, Archangel Gary’s feather, and the Death card, things get hilariously out of hand. Performances by Cabe Lindsay and Audrey Love.

World of Woo is a comedy variety show, putting a playful spin on all things woo-woo. Expect laughter, parody, sarcasm, and magic. Our intention is to help normalize the woo-woo. This is meaningful work, because spiritual diversity is often marginalized, ridiculed, or misinterpreted in popular media. We aim to spark curiosity, hold conversations, and honor all walks of life.

“Be bold. It is said that ‘fortune favors the brave.’ So, too, does creativity favor the curious and the courageous.” —Maria Rivera