Today we’d like to introduce you to Ju -Julia Berrios.
Hi Ju, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
My name is Ju – Julia Berrios, and I am the co-founder, artist, and influencer behind SANARTE FOUNDATION. After a decade of working for the MDCPS (Miami-Dade County Public Schools System), I developed life-changing conditions that would forever impact the course of my life, yet lead me towards a vision that would help change the lives of many through our non-profit organization. As I became afflicted with these chronic complex diseases, I simultaneously became inspired to begin my artistic endeavors. I have lived with ongoing disabling conditions from 2011-2023, including Fibromyalgia, then ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), LYME, and a severe brain cancer, Glioblastoma.
My artistic creations were born during the extended periods I spent homebound in bed due to my health condition. I have spent years battling these diseases and have struggled immensely by not being able to find appropriate treatments, let alone cures. As the years passed, overwhelming frustration began building inside of me as I realized that treatments and cures were nowhere to be found because funds for research were lacking. If more funding would be available, treatments and cures would exist!
This became a pivotal realization in my journey, which urged me to take compassion a step further, into a much-needed action! It was then that I decided that my Digital Art Collection could be a vehicle to help fundraise for medical research so that medical breakthroughs could be found to treat and cure these so many under-funded MCCDs (Multi-System Chronic Complex Diseases). This focus and intent led me to create a non-profit organization called SANARTE Foundation. SANARTE means healing in the Spanish language. Our philanthropic organization’s primary purpose is to help raise funds for medical health research in the private sector, while also exposing would-be donors to my digital art collections and enriching their donation experience by gifting them an art piece with every donation. SANARTE in late 2023, became a 501©(3) tax-exempt nonprofit as determined by the Internal Revenue Service. This has given us the ability to attract donors who can relate to our cause – generating funds for increased medical research – and making their charitable monetary donations tax-exempt as permitted by law.
The main purpose of SANARTE is to use my artwork as a higher state of “Compassion in Action” to gather valuable monetary resources in the form of world contributions, private philanthropy, and all other types of donations to make a difference in scientific health research worldwide. The intention of our philanthropic non-profit organization is very fresh, unique, and different from other health organizations because it uses Post Contemporary Art Collections as a vehicle for a more spiritual and environmentally awakened state by elevating “world health consciousness” through artistic mindfulness meditation.
We all face challenges, but would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been far from a smooth road for me. I overcame severe MCCD (Multi-System Chronic Complex Diseases) symptoms for more than a decade but that did not reduce my passion for creating digital artwork. More recently, I have had to overcome two brain tumor Glioblastoma surgeries which have slowed me down but have not stopped me. I am passionate about my Art and I want to inspire people to do great things with whatever they have a passion for, even if they are afflicted with MCCDs (Multi-System Chronic Complex Diseases), or any other type of medical condition. Overcoming challenges like mine has made me a better and deeper soul, and I am determined to make an impact in the lives of others through my foundation.
The biggest struggle to make my dream a reality was the limited physical energy production I had due to my ME/CFS health condition. My art collections while bedridden/homebound depict an experience reflective of a “State of Grace”; and it was created to inspire all medical scientists to continue their research so that treatments and cures for all medical diseases affecting humanity can be found.
There is no question that Dr. Nancy Klimas and all her physicians and staff at the Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine (INIM) at NOVA Southeastern University deserve a lot of credit and I would not be as functional as I am today if it weren’t for their efforts and the science-based treatments they delivered to me over the past 10 years.
I must also thank my Glioblastoma brain surgeon, Dr. Komotar, at the University of Miami who saved my life twice in 2018 and 2020. He is currently the Director of the University of Miami Brain Tumor Initiative, Director of Surgical Neuro-Oncology at the University of Miami, Director of the UM Neurosurgery Residency Program, and Director of the UM Surgical Neuro-oncology Fellowship Program.
In addition, I am extremely grateful to The Dwoskin Proton Therapy Center, located in downtown Miami’s health district right behind UHealth Tower, is equipped with Varian’s ProBeam Compact proton therapy system. I underwent 30 successful days of Proton Therapy. The proton beam treatment at the Dwoskin Proton Therapy Center uses pencil-beam scanning technology to precisely target the power of radiation against cancer cells. Its precision destroys cancer cells while significantly reducing radiation exposure to nearby healthy tissues and organs.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
In 2014, while homebound and bedridden, I created a plethora of digital artwork. I have over a few hundred pieces of art. A personal Out of Body Experience was a catalyst for these artistic creations. I have dedicated my digital artwork to our Divine Creator. Believing life is a Gift, I believe our creator allows us the opportunity to evolve and grow through life’s challenges and obstacles.
Human health should be a priority on our planet earth. All my artwork is simply a vehicle to raise world health consciousness and advance higher vibrations of the planet to a higher frequency and assist non-profit organizations, medical doctors, and scientists to be able to serve a higher purpose for “self” and “humanity” through increased awareness, medical research, and altruistic means.
Everyone is just an aspect of one being, one consciousness. We have been conditioned to focus on our differences rather than our similarities, to see what separates us rather than what brings us together. From this limited perspective, we fail to see that the essence in me is the essence in you. We are not closed systems. In truth, science has found that we all are 99.9% space. In what way is spaciousness not unified? Our heart knows and understands the essential mindfulness of our Oneness, but the mind cannot go there without breaking up the illusion of duality and dissolving its illusory self.
It is the strong identification that we hold with the mind that keeps us from knowing that we are all aspects of one being. This contemplation is from the perspective of higher states of consciousness. When the mind stops, the truth of Oneness emerges. As the mind slows, we can get glimpses of truth in which one can see that in the place of separateness, is a vast interconnected and aware livingness perfectly moving itself. At the highest level, we are taught that there is only existence, consciousness, and bliss.
We are gradually moving from the “Age of Information” into the “Age of Consciousness” or “Oneness ”. We are slowly beginning to look for answers within ourselves in search of our fulfillment. These Art collections involve becoming aware and growing closer to our “higher conscious self” and our “environment” Mother Earth. I believe this energy can be unleashed to co-create a more beautiful environmentally safe world that is surrounded by higher emotions such as love, peace, compassion, generosity, courage, prosperity, and integrity through the use of Oneness or Consciousness in our world through our artistic mindfulness.
Each piece was carefully meditated upon and positive intentions were transformed as energy on canvas. Allow the art pieces, like crystals, to choose you as opposed to you choosing them. You will attract what your subconscious seeks or needs. The intention will bring clarity to your life and you will receive and attract as you bring your unconscious higher self to a more conscious state making it part of your belief system. I allow our emotions (energy in motion) on the canvas to flow through freely without any resistance, hence, opening the Divine within to serve a higher purpose in our life. I transform obstacles into missions through spirituality that raises our environmental consciousness and values of human health in our world.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I have two amazing and admirable mentors. The first one was able to introduce me to the digital art world, and he is none other than the very talented LAURENCE GARTEL, known to the world as the FATHER of Digital Art for over 40 years. His career started while working alongside the video-guru Nam June Paik at Media Study/Buffalo in upstate New York.
He taught Andy Warhol how to use the Amiga Computer to produce the album cover for Debbie Harry (Blondie). Gartel was the Official Artist of the 57th Annual Grammy Awards whose one-of-a-kind Grammy Statue resides at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. He is the Artist of the Monaco International Film Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, NASA MMS Mission at Kennedy Space Center, and the Feature of the 113th New York International Auto Show and Oslo Motor Show in Norway. He has produced over 65 vehicles of which the Carnevale Chevy Art Car is his latest/greatest.
Another leader of the non-profit community that I truly admire is the founder of Open Medicine Foundation (OMF), Ms. Linda Tannenbaum, who currently holds the position of CEO/President. Linda established OMF in 2012 after Linda’s 16-year-old daughter was diagnosed with sudden onset ME / CFS in 2006. Linda was devastated to learn that there were no diagnostic tests or treatments available for the disease that was severely impacting her daughter’s quality of life, and she decided to take action.
Upon conducting extensive research, Linda realized that there was a lack of open, global collaborative research and funding for ME/CFS and related chronic complex diseases. To address this, she founded OMF to raise funds and facilitate large-scale research to develop diagnostic tools, treatments, and prevention strategies for these diseases.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sanartefoundation.org/
- Instagram: @sanartefoundation.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SanarteFoundation
- Youtube: @sanartefoundation2355
