My world of Universal Love is infused with an unfailing trust in a universe that offers boundless love and joy, and where there is only good. It is "peopled" with my spirit dog Rhodo, my higher selves, angels, Mother Earth, my spirit guide Zadnar Zarendu...all of whom watch over me and give me guidance with loving tenderness. I do not see them or hear them. I just know that they are there.

My world is suffused with a love for all mankind and all species. It is a love that opens the portal to a world of kindness, compassion, the recognition of our interconnectedness, and where all species live in harmony.

It is this love that nudges me always in the direction of the right action, towards wisdom and integrity, for the greater good. I want to smile at everyone, tenderly caress a cheek or squeeze a shoulder.

My iconography always includes hearts, for me the perfect symbol for Universal Love.

My drawings are my journal and reflect my personal visions of Universal Love. They contain my observations and affirmations. I feel that if I can draw this love, I can make it happen.

I originally worked as an artist in the late sixties, creating large black and white drawings, which I called "landscapes of the mind" and which were sold through galleries in Boston and New York. In 1970 I stopped drawing completely when the internal "escape" world I was creating on paper no longer interested me.

Irma Turtle with Ethiopian tribal goddaughters

Since then I have spent the last 22 years working in Africa, among some of the world's most remote and traditional tribal peoples. I created my own humanitarian organization, TurtleWill. (www.turtlewill.org). We dig wells, fund primary schools so that nomadic children can get an education, fund cooperatives that empower women, and bring in doctors and medicines providing health care to people who would otherwise have none. It would be hard to find more a rewarding work than this, among fascinating, caring peoples with a remarkable tenacity to survive.

These 22 years have been an exploration and discovery of the meaning of a Universal Love, of the love that can exist between all species, across all dimensions.

In August, 2005, after 37 years, I picked up my drawing pens once again, feeling the inspiration to call forth in visual images the deepest parts of me. The drawings are the pages of my journal. They give testimony to my moments of growth, my insights, my challenges and my joys. They began where they left off, in black and white.

Irma Turtle at home with her dog Rhodo

In September, 2006 my dog Rhodo communicated telepathically to me, "The most important thing you bring to Africa is love."

Somewhat stunned I said, "Love??? What about the wells, the schools, the cooperatives, the medicines?"

Rhodo responded, "No. The most important thing you bring is love, and when you get too tired to do your work, find a way to still bring love".

Rhodo's amazing words unleashed a new chapter in me. Overnight I began working in color. These drawings are a tribute to Rhodo and to the astonishing power of love.

They depict my world as I know it, see it, intuit it. They depict it as I want it to be and know it can be. The drawings are all about a world of magnificent Universal Love.

My iconography includes multi images of me, other humans, Rhodo, other animals, angels, my spirit guide Zadnar Zarendu, and hearts...always hearts...as what better symbol is there for Universal Love than the heart.

For more information on Irma Turtle , use this link to a short movie on "Who is Irma Turtle":
Click Here

For information on who is helped by Irma Turtle: Click Here

BORN: Newton, MA

PREVIOUS ART CAREER: 1966-1970

4 Person Show Amherst College, Amherst MA 1966

1 Person Show Beaver Country Day School, Chestnut Hill MA 1967

Eleanor Rigelhaupt Gallery Boston, MA 1968-1969 Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston MA
Collaboration Show 1969
Rental Show 1969, 1970

Ward Nasse Gallery Boston and New York City "Salon 70 Show" 1970

Optic Gallery, Amherst MA 1969, 1970

MIT Graphics Show, Cambridge MA 1969-1970

National Drawing Society at the Addison Gallery, MA 1970

Concours Gallery at the State Street Bank, Thomas F Ford Gallery, Boston 1970

Collection of the Worcester Museum, Worcester MA

I stop drawing 1970

MY LIFE IN THE MAINSTREAM

Graduate, Smith College with BA in art 1966

Director, Museum Publications of America, Art Book Club, Boston 1972-74

International Vice President, Ogilvy & Mather, NY 1979-81

President, Ogilvy & Mather Direct, Brazil 1981-84

Director, Turtle Tours Adventure Travel Company specializing in Remote Tribal Peoples, 1985 - 2004

Director, TurtleWill, a humanitarian organization working in Niger, Mali and Ethiopia 1997 to the present

SPECIAL RECOGNITIONS

Featured along with the Dalai Lama in an international TV series, "Nomads of the Human Condition" 2003

Recipient of "Making a World of Difference" award from Tempe Sister Cities, AZ 2007

Featured segment on "Profiles in Caring" TV show honoring humanitarians 2008

THE ARTIST REBORN

I begin journaling through black and white drawings to put balance back into my life 2005

Rhodo imparts her amazing words about the importance of love. I begin working in color (see Biography) 2006

People like my message! I agree to sell my drawings 2007

3 Person show: Janne Gallery Carefree, AZ 2008